INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Daniel Jones is back with the Indianapolis Colts, and Alec Pierce couldn't be happier.
Two days after the 25-year-old Pierce — Jones' top target — agreed to a four-year contract extension worth $116 million, the Colts brought back their quarterback on a two-year deal worth up to $100 million, a person with knowledge of the deal told The Associated Press on Wednesday. The person requested anonymity because the deal had not been announced.
Later Wednesday, Pierce explained why he never intended to leave the team that drafted him.
“I believe in what we have going on here, I believe in our team, I believe in the players we have in place,” he said. "I think last year in the beginning of the season — just that first half of the season — I think we truly had something special going. And I know we didn’t finish the way we wanted to finish, but I think I’m able to look back to that and look at how we were playing, and know we can be the best team in the NFL.”
Pierce and Jones helped the Colts' offense get off to a hot start, but things went awry when Jones tried to play through a hairline fracture in his left leg before suffering a season-ending torn right Achilles tendon in early December. Indy lost its final seven games to miss the playoffs for a fifth consecutive season.
It's unclear when Jones will be fully recovered from surgery to repair the tendon, though general manager Chris Ballard and coach Shane Steichen continue to express optimism that Jones could be ready to participate in training camp. And even if he's not, it became clear Indy was eager to run it back with Jones, Pierce and running back Jonathan Taylor.
Pierce's contract puts him among the league's 10 highest-paid receivers. Jones' deal includes $88 million in salary, incentives that could push the value to $100 million and guarantees of $50 million.
Getting there required some salary cap maneuvering.
To fit Pierce under the cap, Ballard traded longtime No. 1 receiver Michael Pittman Jr. to the Pittsburgh Steelers for a late-round draft pick. Then the focus turned to Jones, the No. 6 overall draft pick in 2019, who was given the transition tag by Indy last week.
“You said being the number No. 1? That’s something I know I can do, I believe in it,” Pierce said. “The opportunity is now, and it’s there for me to take it. That’s going to be something I knew was going to come with getting this type of contract, and that was probably the biggest thing I was excited about.”
Jones has struggled with injuries, playing six games in 2023 for the New York Giants. He then started 10 games for the Giants in 2024 before he was benched, leading to his release.
But Jones revived his career in Indy.
He completed 68% of his throws last season for 3,101 yards — his highest total since leading the Gants to the playoffs in 2022. He also threw 19 touchdown passes, his highest total since 2019, and had eight interceptions.
Pierce led all qualifying players in yards per reception in 2024 and 2025.
“I knew at the bottom my heart, this is where I wanted to be,” Pierce said. “But they kept telling me, they said, ‘We’re not going to let you get out of Indy. We want you to be a Colt.’ So, I knew they wanted me here and I wanted to be here, so it was an easy decision.”
Ballard also reached a deal with edge rusher Arden Key, traded for defensive tackle Colby Wooden and is likely still in the market for a pass rusher. He could also be seeking a backup quarterback after Anthony Richardson was granted permission to seek a trade.
Richardson, the No. 4 overall draft pick in 2023, lost the starting job to Jones in training camp last season and then suffered an eye injury during a freak pregame accident in October.
AP Pro Football Writer Rob Maaddi contributed to this report.
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FILE - Indianapolis Colts wide receiver Alec Pierce runs a route during an NFL football game against the Houston Texans, Jan. 4, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/Maria Lysaker)
PARIS (AP) — Activists worldwide held May Day rallies and street protests Friday, calling for peace, higher wages and better working conditions as many workers grapple with rising energy costs and shrinking purchasing power tied to the Iran war.
May 1 is a public holiday in many countries to mark International Workers’ Day, or Labor Day, when workers’ unions traditionally rally around wages, pensions, inequality and broader political issues. Demonstrations were held from Seoul, Sydney and Jakarta to many European capitals. In the U.S., activists opposing President Donald Trump’s policies also were holding marches and boycotts.
“Working people refuse to pay the price for Donald Trump’s war in the Middle East,” the European Trade Union Confederation, which represents 93 trade union organizations in 41 European countries, said. “Today’s rallies show working people will not stand by and see their jobs and living standards destroyed.”
What to know about May Day:
Rising living costs linked to the conflict in the Middle East emerged as a key theme in Friday’s rallies.
In the Philippine capital, Manila, large crowds denounced the U.S. role in the Iran war. Protesters clashed with police blocking the way near the U.S. Embassy.
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto joined a rally in Jakarta where workers called for stronger government protection from rising prices and difficulties in finding raw materials for key industries.
On a main avenue in Casablanca, Morocco’s largest city, taxi drivers honked their horns and bus drivers parked their vehicles to protest rising fuel costs.
“All my expenses have gone up, but my wages haven’t budged,” Akherraz Lhachimi of the Moroccan Labor Union said.
Turkish authorities in Istanbul detained hundreds of demonstrators for attempting to march in areas declared off-limits on security grounds, most notably central Taksim Square, the epicenter of 2013 protests. May Day rallies in Turkey are frequently marred by clashes with authorities.
Tens of thousands of people crowded into a public square across from the U.S. Embassy in Havana, celebrating Cuba's workers and decrying U.S. sanctions. Many held banners that read, “Down with Imperialism” and “U.S. hands off Cuba.” President Miguel Díaz-Canel and former President Raúl Castro attended the event.
Several rallies were staged in South Africa, where the head of the Congress of South African Trade Unions, Zingiswa Losi, said workers were “suffocating” under rising costs of food, electricity, transport and healthcare.
May Day carries special meaning this year in France, after a heated debate about whether employees should be allowed to work on the country’s most protected public holiday — the only day when most employees have a mandatory paid day off.
Almost all businesses, shops and malls are closed, and only essential sectors such as hospitals, transport and hotels are exempt. A recent parliamentary proposal to expand work on the day prompted major outcry from unions and left-leaning politicians.
“Don’t touch May Day,” unions said in a joint statement.
Tens of thousands of people joined marches across the country, including in Paris, where brief scuffles with police broke out.
“May 1 is not just any day,” Small and Medium-sized Businesses Minister Serge Papin said. “It symbolizes social gains stemming from a century of building social rules that have led to the labor code we know in France. It is indeed a special day.”
In the United States, where May Day is not a federal holiday, May Day Strong, a coalition of activist groups and labor unions, called on people to protest under the banner of “workers over billionaires.”
Voicing strong opposition to Trump's policies, organizers listed thousands of May Day actions across the country and called for an economic blackout through “no school, no work, no shopping.”
Demands include taxing the rich and putting an end to the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
While labor and immigrant rights are historically intertwined, the focus of May Day rallies in the U.S. shifted to immigration in 2006. That’s when roughly 1 million people, including nearly half a million in Chicago alone, took to the streets to protest federal legislation that would have made living in the U.S. without legal permission a felony.
May Day, or International Workers’ Day, traces back more than a century to a pivotal period in U.S. labor history.
In the 1880s, unions pushed for an eight-hour workday. A Chicago rally in May 1886 turned deadly when a bomb exploded and police responded with gunfire. Several labor activists — most of them immigrants — were convicted of conspiracy and other charges; four were executed.
Unions later designated May 1 to honor workers. A monument in Chicago’s Haymarket Square commemorates them with the inscription: “Dedicated to all workers of the world.”
Associated Press journalists Barry Hatton in Lisbon, Portugal, Giada Zampano in Rome, Munir Ahmed in Islamabad, Niniek Karmini in Jakarta, Indonesia, Jim Gomez in Manila, Philippines, Cinar Kiper in Istanbul, Turkey, Akram Oubachir in Casablanca, Morocco, and Dánica Coto in Havana contributed to this report.
A man holds a picture or former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro wearing a prison uniform during a May Day rally demanding greater labor rights in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Friday, May 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)
Protesters march during the May Day demonstration in Paris, Friday, May 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
An union member is detained by a Turkish police officer as people try to march towards Taksim square in Istanbul, Turkey, Friday, May 1, 2026, during Labor Day celebrations. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
Members of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions stage a rally on May Day in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, May 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Members of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions stage a rally on May Day in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, May 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Union members scuffle with Turkish police officers as they try to march towards Taksim square in Istanbul, Turkey, Friday, May 1, 2026, during Labor Day celebrations. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
Union members carefully step through rain-formed puddles to participate in a May Day rally in the rain Friday, May 1, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
People march to mark International Workers' Day, also known as May Day, in Sydney, Friday, May 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)
People march to mark International Workers' Day, also known as May Day, in Sydney, Friday, May 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)
FILE - Activist and workers raise their clenched fists during a May Day rally in Manila, Philippines, May 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila, File)
Laborers protest during a May Day demonstration in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, April 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Laborers hold flares during a May Day demonstration in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, April 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Members of trade unions take part in a rally a day ahead of the International Labor Day, in Karachi, Pakistan, Thursday, April 30, 2026. The banner in center reading as 'red salute to the martyrs of Chicago and the struggle will continue until economic exploitation is ended' (AP Photo/Ali Raza)
Members of trade unions take part in a rally a day ahead of the International Labor Day, in Karachi, Pakistan, Thursday, April 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Ali Raza)
