Quote:
Originally Posted by carcosa
(Post 15258761)
Pringle was getting all the snaps down the stretch. Is he in the doghouse? (I'm only partially asking because I started him in fantasy thinking he'd get some looks with Watkins out)
Seems like he's regressed a lot this season, unfortunately...
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Pringle got more snaps at the end of the game because
he's a better run-blocker than Hardman, due partly because Pringle is simply bigger and stronger, and partly because Pringle has a lot more practice run-blocking.
People need to stop trying to read a bunch of stuff into how the end of one game went.
Look, try this: go on your playstation or whatever and put Hill and Hardman (stock, no putting your 'hometeam' version of Hardman in)as WR1 and WR2 and then run the ball on every down. Do this as a coach; don't use your special little thumb moves to cheat. Do this against PIT or some team that features physical DBs. Hardman will probably get raped every time, because he simply isn't a big physical guy.
Couple that with the fact Hardman doesn't have hardly any experience run-blocking as a WR anyway.
Put the BUF game out of your minds. It was an outlier game, because it was literally raining small animals out there, it was like 40 degrees and windy. We ran the ball 50 times. That was not anything like an average Chiefs game. If Andy runs the ball 35+ times it's news.
Hardman's role is to be a deep threat, similar to Hill; they even run the same kinds of routes. The difference is that Hill has the experience and skill set to be able to run shorter routes and over the middle because he's had time to work on it, in particular the ability to beat man press, which took him some time to develop.
Hardman hasn't gotten there yet. He doesn't consistently beat man press; he gets jammed at the line a lot which means his timing is put off (among other things). Now add in just how fast Mahomes makes his reads, in fact sometimes he reads through too fast right? So Pat looks over at Hardman or where he's supposed to be, and he's either not there (at the break) or he's tightly covered because he didn't get off the line efficiently. Now, maybe in half a second hardman gets wide open, but Pat doesn't wait sometimes. So Pat just moves on to the next read. I am not blaming Patrick, stop it.
Hardman is running routes better at a fundamental level, but he still has to work on the nuances of the position, things like beating man press at the snap using a combination of his speed/quickness and learning to use his hands, like Hill has learned to do to beat DBs that try to get physical at the line. And then he needs to work on some other things. Those are things that just take time. He's not dumb; where do people get this stuff?
He's inexperienced. It's the beginning of his second year in the league.
It's the start of just his fourth season as a WR at any level. In spite of all of the above, he was selected to a Pro Bowl already. He's been about as productive a rookie WR as the league saw last season.
But he's never going to be a replacement for Watkins. Get that out of your minds. Unless he gets a few inches taller, puts on 20 lbs. and someone plugs him into that Matrix machine that just gives you decades of training and experience in 10 seconds, that's not a thing. They don't play the same role on the offense.
Seriously, by the end of next season, barring injury or whatever, Hardman is going to be a very dangerous WR.
So just be patient. Hardman's going to be fine. You can't make him into a prime Desean Jackson (or whoever you want to use) in a couple seasons.
