Georgia QB Jake Fromm offers high praise for Mecole Hardman
 

Both Jake Fromm and Georgia DB J.R. Reed were asked about Hardman's potential at SEC Media Days in Birmingham and each had glowing responses.
https://gasnsports.com/georgia-qb-ja...ecole-hardman/

Great!

He can go HARD, Man in Me Hole

It could very well be.

He will not live up to his potential as a Chief - hope I'm wrong. Could definitely be a productive 500-650 yard guy, just don't ever see him as ever a #1 option even if we didn't have Reek.

Pretty stupid ass thing to say when you haven’t even watched him play yet.

Abe Froman, the Sausage King of Chicago, also endorses Hardman.

It's cool that having a opinion you do not share means it's stupid.

If I came in here and said he is going to be a transcendent player and the next Top 5 WR in the league you would all have raging boners.

I always have a raging boner. Is this not normal?

Suht da **** up

Very sweet of Fromm to say that!

this! lol

Disagreement is fine, speaking in absolutes is pretty ****ing dumb at this point. You have never seen him play yet you’re already predicting how his career plays out? Based on what?

I'm taking a wait and see stance...Conely had crazy combine numbers that never really translated.

If he cant make it work with Mahomes, Kelce, Watkins, Hill and Reid....he's just going to be another name heaped into the "blazing fast athlete" scrap pile.

If he DOES pan out out...look the **** out.

I do think he was a weird pick...considering how Pringle looked before getting injured. I understand that he is being groomed for Watkins financial replacement...but wasn't really a crucial get.

Chiefs needed defensive help...especially DBs.

wasn't Fromm on some TV show I watched?

Wait wait wait. Who was in his jersey in college? Was that someone else? Clone? Whoa. Far out.

The Chiefs had more pressing needs on defense, but keep in mind that they went all defense in the previous draft. We can’t let the offense get old and expensive around Mahomes.

I think WR was more pressing than most think. The Tyreek situation was still up in the air and we know Watkins is injury prone. At the time, there was a feeling that we might be without one or both at some point in the coming season. Yes we have Mahomes, but we still need weapons around him.

I never make a judgment on a player until I watch them in a game.

Care to offer a legitimate explanation for this? What exactly do you not like about him as a prospect?

That means **** all. You have no idea whether or not he will have a successful transition to a highly productive NFL career. To make those kind of predictions is nonsense.

it is if you inject 500 mg test a week and pop 20 mg of cialis every other day

I don't think anyone saw Reek being as good as he is as a receiver either. Let's see what some time with Pat can do. A good QB can make a receiver's career.

Just having his speed and being with Andy Reid, he'll produce something. What that will be I don't know.

I don't think he'll be Tyreek year one, but that's pretty obvious.

Andy may have his faults, but if he signs off on you as a WR, i'm gonna guess you'll be pretty good.

Dude got (over) drafted in the 2nd round. Let's not pretend like mid 2nd round WRs are supposed to be #1 options.

If you can routinely get 600+ yard downfield threats with 2nd round picks in this league, you're in pretty good shape.

People struggle with expectations.

Am I ever expecting him to develop into Tyreek? Nah. Tyreek is a top 5 football player in the league right now. Not just a WR, but football player. Dude tracks the ball better than I every thought he could or would. It's awesome. Plus the speed etc.

But back to expectations, guys drafted in the 2nd round could develop into top guys sure. But that's ideal. In a real scenario where you get a guy that gives you 600 yards and 4 or 5 TD's per year, while being dynamic, well that's pretty good.

Take Desean for example. Was he ever the actual #1 guy? Nah, probably not. But he was the absolute ideal #2 guy. A speed guy that runs a limited route tree, but the routes he runs are the most valuable ones you can have.

I think that's the ceiling for a guy like Hardman. Sure, you'd love for him to develop into a technician route runner with that speed, but that's just hard. More likely, be the speed guy that you can just throw a few killshots too and work from there.

Guys that are the total package don't go in the 2nd round. They go in the top 15.

The guy will be a play maker and likely have his own special packages he comes in for, like the way DAT was used.

His speed and RAC ability, combined with Reid's ability create space with his scheme ensures this kid will make plays his rookie year.

Reid will make sure he establishes himself early too, so he can have one more respected weapon to stretch and twist a defense.

This kid going one way, Reek going another and Kelce/Watkins/Williams doing w/e the **** Reid has them doing, this offense will be unbelievable to watch.

And lastly, you can bet your ass he'll be running 9's to run the legs off the defense all game long. They've been telling him all offseason that he better be ready to run.

They aint sayin' that shit for no reason. Reid's gonna make those DB's run till they're sucking air on the sideline.

A lot of Conley's numbers were excellent but the one that stood out was the one that doomed him - dude's 3-cone time was abysmal.

And you saw it in his route running from day 1 here. He simply couldn't get in and out of his breaks well enough to be a difference maker.

Hardman appears to have better feet though I don't think he ran the 3-cone. That alone will make his ceiling in this offense significantly higher than Conley's.

I still think he was a reach, but Andy's the best in the business at scheming guys into space and if you can give this kid a little running room before he gets the ball, it's a big play waiting to happen.

It's pretty crazy to go back and watch some highlights of last year where there are times that guys are just....open. Some of that is because we have some badasses at skill spots for sure, but Andy is just a damn wizard with that stuff.

I mean it's one thing for Tyreek to just outrun a guy, but when you get some crazy route combo where Kelce is just flying across the middle with no one around him, it's awesome.

After wataching Hardman several times it began to stick out to me that he's a much stronger, compact runner than his build suggests.

My initial impression just looking at him was Desean Jackson. But this guy is built stronger than Desean and can probably take a bit more punishment. He runs strong for his frame.

Mentioned that in the Hill thread.

I think Reid has found a tactical advantage in just making DBs chase some of these guys. Robinson is dangerous in that regard as well.

At any given time the Chiefs can send 4 guys out there who can demonstrate genuine upper quartile NFL speed. Hill, Watkins, Robinson and Hardman can all be rotated and run until the damn DBs just can't run anymore.

It's the inverse to the old school "run the ball 35 times in 3 quarters and those LBers aren't gonna wanna hit in the 4th anymore...." idea.

Well if you spend 3 quarters with DBs chasing those jackrabbits all over the place, they're gonna feel it in their legs by the 4th.

I don’t know why. There were a lot of rumblings as it got closer to the draft that he wasn’t making it out the 2nd round.

And the Chiefs can actually be effective at it because DB's MUST respect the vertical game.

This isn't the Alex Smith Chiefs where a DB can make the decision to simply let the vertical route go and play the underneath stuff, and guess right 90% of the time.

Vertical routes are not "dummy" routes with the Chiefs. They're not simply there to stretch a defense. They're legitimate threats every single play and must be respected as such, thus FORCING those DB's to run. They can't afford to "only kinda" cover it.

What was crazy was 2013.

That team had dick for offensive talent. I mean absolutely nothing. You have Kelce in effectively his rookie season, Bowe diving headlong into his 'eating his way out of the league' years, Charles and scraps. Fasano, Thomas, Avery, Avant. Junior !@#$ing Hemingway. AJ Jenkins. I mean this is just dogshit across the board.

And while it wasn't an aerial circus out there, Reid was scheming guys into space. I was floored at the times that he'd end up popping of some route combination that got Anthany Fasano rumbling about with 6-8 yards of free grass around him.

None of it made sense.

With the number of guys he has now that can just win an individual matchup, he's just toying with teams. But man, watching him work with both hands tied behind his back and a foot in a walking boot was just impressive as hell. The guy was putting together a credible offense with complete garbage to work with. That team finished 6th in the league in points scored and I will never understand how he did it.

There's an advantage to being able to take vertical shots without having to scheme it as a shot play. A lot of teams seemingly have to do that via formations and such, the Chiefs can just do it via talent.

If There's a formation where they can get Hill and Kelce in the slot with Hardman outside that is going to stress the interior of the Defensive backfield a shit load

Also, lets not forget the effect Hardman could have in the return game. And with this team's ability to find solid to excellent returners? Pfffff

Yeah, doubting Hardman at this point is a fool's errand. There will be ample opportunities for this kid to make plays in space.

They didn't even have Kelce that year. It was Charles and a bunch of dudes.

Man, if you could introduce 2013 Jamal Charles into this current offense....I'm not really sure that's not the best offense in the history of the league. The screen game Andy would run with that would just demolish people.

Juan Thornhill a legit rookie of the year?


Yeah that's a stretch. That takes some thiiiick homer glasses to see that one.

Because the WR board was still extremely strong at that point in the draft so I don't think they had to go up to get him or would've lost much by not taking him.

Arcega-Whiteside, Campbell, Isabella, McLaurin and a few other similarly situated guys were all still on the board. And yes, Hardman's faster than all of them, but he's also a lot more raw.

Like I said - if he's a 35 catch, 600 yard kind of player for us, that's a fine 2nd rounder. I won't complain about the long-term production of the pick at that point. I just think there were some safer guys to take there if you're committed to WR and some flat out more critical needs to deal with if you weren't.

I sure hope they're right about TE2 man - I think Sternberger and Oliver as a high-use TE2 could've added some serious wrinkles to this offense and been a better use of that pick. But time will tell...

Right - you have Mahomes coming out after he threw his 50th TD and saying "yeah, we just sandlotted that shit; completely ad-libbed a 90 yard TD bomb..."

You think coaches don't realize that's a possibility on any given snap? Hell yes they do. And when these guys just continue to develop chemistry with Mahomes, it becomes 6th sense kind of voodoo.

There's absolutely value in having another weapon that can just make guys run around.

We just don't know what they thought of those other WR's in this particular role or offense.

I think Campbell could have done it, but if they think Hardman has higher upside, whatever.

Being able to add Thornhill at the next pick made it ok for me. I think he's gonna be a stud.

Shit, that's right - Kelce was back in '14 (when the talent level was just as !@#$ing bad).

Reid's a magician. And the offense he runs now is NOTHING like the offense he ran then. Dude just made up a new scheme on the fly.

I hope to hell we can get him a championship. He deserves to be considered among the top 5-10 coaches in the history of this game.

I'm actually not a fan of that being a big part of the game. I know it has it's place, but that's kinda why I don't really care for Robinson long term.

As Pat learns and grows he's going to become more of a pocket machine and we need guys being where they're supposed to be timing wise. I dunno that Robinson is that.

Isabella probably could've stood in there nicely as well, but he's just soooooo smaaaallll.

He's a slot guy only long-term because of that. And with the diminished catch radius he may not be able to fully take advantage of Mahomes ability to get balls into areas that most QBs can't.

Maybe they look at Hardman as a guy who's development could make him a long-term X receiver here whereas Isabella, who's learning curve is unlikely to be as steep, would be a slot guy only. Having the potential to transition to the X is pretty critical here given the likelihood of losing Watkins.

I think it's all rearview rationalizing though - Veach thought he was losing Hill and wanted badly to ensure they had a speed threat out there long-term to keep the middle open.

Yeah, I think that was probably a more likely case, in which I can't totally blame him. But theres not a scenario where you can "replace" Hill so it may have been a little quick on the draw.

Yep. Just ask Jerry Rice who had Montana,Young and Garcia. No wonder he is in the HOF:D

The 2 big questions for me is does Hardman have "hands" and can he take NFL hits on a regular basis ?:shrug: We know he can run:hmmm: But now since it looks like Reek will only get a minimal suspension this will take the pressure off Hardman to produce NOW at a vet level.

I at first wanted Parris Campbell. People mentioned Hardman and I read that he had "weak" hands and was like NEXT.

Then I watched some film on him. The thing that absolutely leaps off the page, to use a totally wrong metaphor, is that in his breaks he has that rare ability that it looks like he actually gains speed. He doesn't slow at all making cuts. That's something DK Metcalf and Parris can't do.

I think that's why Reid and Veach like him. He has that DeSean Jackson breakaway speed after one cut, you see him leave guys in the dust trying to keep up with those cuts.

And then as far as his hands being weak he hasn't played wide receiver that long. I imagine he has done about a thousand pass catching drills since that was written two years ago.

No, Kelce was '13. He had to get knee surgery early on, which ended his season.

Definitely a stretch for Thornhill. But I could see it work out that way if he is as good a ball hawk as early returns suggest.

But Hardman? I don't have thick enough glasses for that one.

Why couldn't Thornhill be the rookie of the year?

Because Derwin James wasn't and he was probably the best safety in football last year.

Thornhill ain't winning ROY...

That's true, but I was meaning in terms of ability.

James is awesome but I guess he just didn't have the flashy numbers to be the ROY?

He was the 6th safety off the board in this draft. 6th.

C'mon now - don't let the breathless panting fool you. He's not winning the ROY because he won't even be the best rookie safety in football this year. He's fine. He'll probably be an improvement on what we had but there's no guarantees that he'll beat out Watts or even Lucas for a starting spot.

This isn't Eric Berry, man. He's a guy who was passed over by every team in football at least once and most of them passed on him twice (including the Chiefs). He might be solid, he might even be pretty good.

He's not winning any league awards.

Counterpoint: he's the best safety or at worst second best safety in the draft at the precise position the Chiefs want him in.

And that's fine - he may well get the Chiefs ROY award and should probably be considered the frontrunner.

I liked the pick; he's a nice fit for what we need. That doesn't mean he's gonna be in contention for any national awards. Like I said - his skill set is very similar to Lucas and Watts, especially in that role. He's gonna have to show a very mature approach to even win a starting job, let alone become nationally prominent.

I totally agree that he’s likely not winning any league awards or anything, but I don’t care if he was the 6th safety taken, he could easily be the best in this class. He has great ball skills and I wouldn’t be shocked if he leads the rookie class in INT’s. I don’t think he’s winning DROY either, but I think you’re selling him a little short. For crying out loud one of those guys taken ahead of him was Marquise Blair, who had no business going before him.

Just playing the spot i'm guessing they'll ask him to, he may be in a spot to pick off some balls. Seeing as that seems to be his strongsuit I could see where he has a good stat year.

I doubt it's enough to get any award, but I also don't know that there's much difference in the first safety taken this draft and the 6th. Atleast based on my extensive pre draft research, which is pretty well established as possibly the best around.

Yeah safeties don't win rookie of the year, I agree with you. If Derwin didn't, nobody is. I just have this feeling about Thornhill. He looks crazy athletic and seeing him in the #22 jersey sparked this kind of feeling that I'm almost remembering the future. That doesn't make any sense but it's like...some players you just know they're going to kick ass.

Unless he plays like Ed Reed did in his prime which to your point ain't happening because of James all pro play last year.

Yes, this is what we did to the Jags when they said "we drug them all over the field". We are going to wear teams out.

I don't think receivers even need to run crisp routes with Mahomes. Just run around and get open!

I can say this about Mecole. I think playing for Andy and Mahomes as his QB is the best situation he could have landed in for his skill set. He will get his chances.

Still predicting he will be a 1st round bust?

Spent the last 10 yrs until May in Atlanta.... Mecole was a great pick. He's the real deal. He and Tyreek will reek havoc in the NFL together. With Pat...our time has, finally, arrived.