Past USC Football PAC-12 Champ, legendary WR won't stop balling in NFL

Switching the Quarterback, firing the head coach, and hiring a high school head coach have all proven to be adversity that USC Football legend Michael Pittman Jr. can handle. They've all happened to him this year in the NFL.

The Indianapolis Colts have changed the standout WR's Quartetback from Matt Ryan, to Sam Ehlinger, and back to Matt Ryan again. They have fired Head Coach Frank Reich. They have also hired Head Coach Jeff Saturday, who had no coaching experience other than coaching an average high school team before he was brought on to be Indy's head coach. Still, Pittman prevails.

In a lackluster Colts performance against the awful 4-7 Pittsburgh Steelers, Pittman was a rare bright spot for the Colts again this season. Pittman had seven(!) catches for 61 receiving yards and a touchdown. He was the only pass-catcher to score a touchdown for Indianapolis.

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He had a great performance despite another poor performance from his QB in Matt Ryan again. Ryan was held under 200 passing yards, and averaged just 5.9 yards per pass attempt. Ryan is averaging just 6.8 yards per pass attempt and 6.2 adjusted yards per pass attempt on the year, with only 11 touchdown tosses.

The other Indy QB, Ehlinger, has been even worse. He's racking up only 5.8 yards per pass attempt and 5.0 adjusted yards per pass attempt. He has only completed 61.5% of his passes, and has a 0:1 TD:INT ratio. This quarterback play is atrocious, yet Pittman is still all the way up to 74 catches and 739 receiving yards. The Colts have only played 12 games so far.

Michael Pittman Jr. is proving that he should have been a first round NFL Draft pick out of the USC Football program.

Michael Pittman was drafted out of the USC Football program by the Colts with the No. 31 overall pick. That's the second pick of the second round. He was not drafted in the first round for no reason, and he's proving that he should have been a first round pick with his VERY strong performance despite the VERY poor quarterback play and coaching that he's playing with this year.

It's similar to how Pittman shined despite coaching that was rather mediocre at USC. Pittman was being coached by the likes of Tee Martin, Graham Harrell, and Clay Helton at USC. Still, he was at the top of the college game, and even led the PAC-12 in receptions (101) and receiving yards (1,275) in 2019 (his best year).

Remember that he had this type of season despite being in a wide receiver room with FOUR other future NFL wide receivers on it (Amon-Ra St. Brown, Drake London, Velus Jones Jr., and Tyler Vaughns). He ended up performing better than all of them that year.

He also had to deal with SIX QB changes that season, including three switches to the third-string quarterback (Matt Fink). Therefore, neither Colts fans nor USC fans are surprised by Pittman's performance at all. He's already a great receiver in this league, as he was always going to be.