Mo Alie-Cox

The targets tell you everything: three of them, in five games, for a tight end who is now the second name on his own depth chart. Tyler Warren owns the passing game in Indianapolis, and what is left for Mo Alie-Cox is occasional red-zone work that only pays when a touchdown lands. It has not landed. Zero scores, zero carries, 30 receiving yards through week 5 of 2026, and a 1.2 points a game average that would embarrass most third tight ends.

The odd part of his 2025 was never the snap count, which sat near 40%, it was that a 30% red-zone share of his own touches still produced 31 points all year, TE65 among 137 qualifying tight ends. He is 33, in his tenth season, and the offense under Shane Steichen and Jim Bob Cooter is unchanged from the one that buried him under Warren and Michael Pittman last season. Nothing in the setup suggests a new door opens.

The health angle does not save him either, and that is worth saying plainly because it is his only defense: he has played all five weeks this season and carries no injury designation, and the misses in 2025 were healthy scratches, not a hurt body. This is a role issue through and through. Our 50-point preseason projection assumed 15 games of usable volume, and even the middle of our range, 35 to 64, needs targets he has shown no way to earn. With his bye not until week 13 of 2026, there is no schedule excuse coming either. Release him and spend the roster spot on a tight end with a live path to catches.