INDIANAPOLIS -- The moment the Colts found out Michael Pittman Jr. wasn't going to play against the Falcons with brain injury symptoms, a hole deepened inside of them.

Reggie Wayne, their receivers coach who is a Hall of Fame finalist for his own stellar career as a Colts receiver, addressed the room in the team meeting the night before the game. He looked specifically at Alec Pierce and DJ Montgomery, his healthy outside receivers.

"I said, 'Look, Pitt's not playing, but this is our chance to show everybody that we're not just a one-man army,'" Wayne said. "'We're a squad. We're a crew. Let's go out there and let everybody know.'"

The Colts then went out against Atlanta and looked like a zero-man army. The receiving corps managed just 10 total catches for 79 yards and zero touchdowns in a 29-10 loss. They spent the entire second half chasing points in a dome, but too often, they had nowhere to go.

"A lot of those key situations, those third downs when we're saying, 'We just need a play. We need a play,'" Wayne said. "Normally, we'd be like, 'Pitt will get us a play some kind of way.' And when you don't have Pitt, you're looking around like, 'All right, which one of these guys can give us a play?'"

Each game Pittman plays, and each one he doesn't, just adds an extra "cha-ching" to what he'll collect as a free agent this spring. Though it's been fair to debate just how high Pittman ranks in a league of game-changing wide receivers with his 11.0 career yards per catch and 15 career touchdowns, that landscape necessitates that teams have one of those players a passing game can operate through.

After four seasons, Pittman has proven to be one of those players for the Colts. It's time to extend him. If not, the Colts must accept that someone else will.

GO DEEPER: The multiple personalities of Michael Pittman Jr.

"Going forward, every player can take a page out of his book," Pittman said of the way Jonathan Taylor turned the threat of a franchise tag into a high-end contract this fall. "... Going forward, I think players should model that because it ended up working out."

In the past three seasons, the Colts have given Pittman six different starting quarterbacks. He's produced with all of them, but they can't find a way to produce without him.

Pittman has posted at least 88 catches and 925 yards in each of those seasons, but the next-best performance by any Colts pass catcher in any of those years is the 63 catches for 670 yards that Josh Downs has this season.

The last time a Colts player not named Pittman had either 88 catches or 925 yards came back when Andrew Luck was playing. That was a prime T.Y. Hilton in 2018.

Sometimes, the Colts feel Pittman most when he isn't out there.

Take the game against the Patriots in 2021, when Pittman was ejected early in the third quarter. The Colts finished with five completions that day and only won because of Taylor's back-breaking run and a punt-block touchdown.

Take last year, when Pittman had to miss against the Jaguars and the Colts lost 24-0.

Or take Sunday's game in Atlanta, when Gardner Minshew dropped back 43 times and completed four passes for 38 yards to outside wide receivers.

The only time the Colts have survived without Pittman was against the Steelers. Pittman had four catches for 78 yards by the time Damontae Kazee speared him. The Colts were able to manufacture a sharp touchdown drive through Montgomery before rushing 13 consecutive times against a gassed Pittsburgh defense.

But in games where the Colts can't run at will, the worries can creep in.

"He's a leader on this team," tight end Drew Ogletree said of Pittman. "Not seeing him out there, not having the vibes and enthusiasm he brings is tough."

Next spring, Indianapolis will welcome back Anthony Richardson, the No. 4 pick in the draft who played parts of four games before going down for the season with an AC joint sprain.

Richardson is an electric athlete who can extend the play to create down the field, which is where Pittman thrived with Carson Wentz, the last mobile quarterback he's played with. The connection could put defenses in a blender, where they first have to take away Richardson's initial read, chase him from the pocket, contain his scramble and still find a way to cover a 6-4 wide receiver trained like a power forward going up for the rebound.

But Richardson is also a young, developing passer who will need a receiver in structure he can trust. He should have some of that in Downs, but the Colts have restricted him to the slot. On the outside, he needs a player like Pittman, who is the only player in the NFL with 10 different games of at least eight catches.

It is through that baseline that the Colts can build out roles and upside for Downs, Pierce and Jelani Woods. They must fit together, with Pierce and Woods challenging the deeper regions of the field as Pittman goes to work underneath, but the ecosystem needs a center.

"To have a guy on the outside that makes those plays threatens the defense in a certain way where now maybe matchups change a little bit and coverage structures change a little bit and that can help everybody else out a little bit," offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter said.

The Colts are a couple of games from the conversation they're going to have to have with Pittman.

He can expect to shatter the four-year, $72 million deal Christian Kirk received from the Jaguars in free agency off a 982-yard season in 2022. He could be looking at something north of $22 million a year, which would place him in a range of Terry McLaurin, D.K. Metcalf and Stefon Diggs just outside the top five in annual value. Only Tampa Bay's Mike Evans has more receiving yards among potential free agents than Pittman, and Evans is four years older.

If the Colts don't like the price tag, they could trade him, the way the Packers did with DaVante Adams, the Vikings did with Diggs, the Titans did with A.J. Brown and the Chiefs did with Tyreek Hill, though all of those teams did so with a high-priced veteran quarterback. Thanks to Richardson's rookie deal, Indianapolis will have more than $71 million available next season, according to OverTheCap.com.

Thanks to this season's success, Marvin Harrison Jr. won't be walking through that door. Nor will any other substantially cheaper No. 1 receiver in the short-term, which is suddenly the timeframe that matters with Richardson.

Pittman would love an extension, but he has an eye on the value, a lesson he learned as the son of an 11-year running back. Hits like Kazee's will only reinforce the desire of a husband and father of two to play the long game.

"I know that big contract is coming soon," Michael Pittman Sr. said last fall. "Man, I just can’t wait for that.”

If the Colts are serious about climbing out of the desert they found themselves in this passing league after Luck's retirement, then they need to extend the one reliable wide receiver they've had since it started. They need to build on the momentum of Shane Steichen's upstart first season with the Colts, which has come through offensive creativity and manufacturing points with a backup quarterback. It's a formula that couldn't function without its top receiver Sunday.

It's time to show Richardson that this team is ready for him to take it somewhere real. The path is through the arms of No. 11 -- their one-man army at wide receiver.

Contact Nate Atkins at natkins@indystar.com. Follow him on Twitter @NateAtkins_.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Colts: It's time to extend Michael Pittman Jr.