Doesn't sound like KC even made an offer.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Mecole Hardman in his press conference with the Jets on if the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Chiefs?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Chiefs</a> offered him anything. <a href="https://t.co/Nnh46cMHbl">pic.twitter.com/Nnh46cMHbl</a></p>&mdash; Nick Jacobs (@Jacobs71) <a href="https://twitter.com/Jacobs71/status/1639366767997771778?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 24, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Thats killer.

He should have just said something positive about wanting to be a Jet.

I hate it when people say this

Feb 1, 2023 — Well, according to Celebrity Net Worth, Gisele Bündchen's net worth is $400 million, which is almost double what her husband Tom Brady is worth.


Let's not pretend Tom Brady sacrificed so his team can win Super Bowls.

The point is that he could have demanded a better contract for himself.

Sounds more like he was deliberately out of the loop and just went with what his agent told him. meh.

It's been thought for years that Kraft paid Tom more money through his shitty TB12 business and its probably true.

He had his chance here. How many times did Mahomes get on his ass about his crappy routes. More than a few. He can be useful but isn't that great and Moore is better. Good luck to him.

Hardman and Hill as rivals, may have always been the case

I get the point but his situation is a lot different than most guys in the league that are the main bread makers in the family. Making it easier for him to take less money and then look like he is doing it for the team. Take her money out of the equation would he have taken less money? I think not.

Seems like he didn't care one way or the other about KC.

KC seems to have felt the same.

Fair enough...

You don't need 40 million a year to support your family.

You might want it. I don't blame you. He did what he wanted. He wasn't short on money and taking less meant everyone slobbed his knob and treated him like a savior. Sounds like that's exactly what he wanted.

Brady essentially paid to be the most accomplished QB in NFL history. Most guys don't even have the option to do that.

Eh. I think Hardman did care. He's obviously uncomfortable answering the question. All of his body language, facial expressions, tone, express discomfort. right down to the end when he bites his lower lip. He doesn't appear angry, he looks confused, maybe. Or disappointed.

You have to remember that these guys know what's up far in advance. They talk to their agents and have a pretty good idea of what's going to go down before the year is even over. He probably would have liked to stay and get paid. Most guys would after making a place their home for 4 or 5 years.

Mecole doesn't seem like a bad dude at all. Perhaps a little immature, a little more college kid and less late 20's. And I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing but he's in a cutthroat business. I don't think he answered poorly either. Nobody comes out and says "Man, it broke my heart."

Well, Money Badger did but he says a lot of things...

Yeah, probably you're spot on. He's just a kid and he's going to react emotionally, especially the first time this happens. I hope he does well and I'll be rooting for him any time he's not playing KC.

Worst answer I've ever seen, more of a non-answer than anything

Just listen to him talk and watch his body language.

Guys a total idiot. Biggest financial time in his whole life and he put it on auto pilot.

I can only imagine being in the WR room and guys that have been there a very limited amount of time are more advanced. Mecole is a fool.

If his elite speed is gone, he won’t be in the nfl much longer.

I don’t get this attitude.

He had made some strides as a real receiver this last year before he got hurt.

It’s like nobody followed the tea leaves. Hardman was benched in 2021 for Pringle and when Skyy was drafted our personnel department took shots at Hardman for his struggles.

This wasn’t a surprise

No one wants to believe that. Three years ago much of CP decided Hardman couldn't run any routes, that he has bad hands, couldn't get in sync with Pat, and whatever other nonsense the detractors invented.

Didn't matter that you could watch any Chiefs highlight reel and literally watch Hardman track the ball well and make good catches deep downfield. Over and over.

Didn't matter last season when he repeatedly ran solid routes (not great ones, but good enough) and not only got himself open in a traditional WR route, but made some great grabs under duress with DBs draped all over him.

Didn't matter when he showed that he could find the soft spot in a zone fairly consistently, or improv when Pat scrambled and find s soft spot extemporaneously. And make tough catches as he was getting crushed by defenders.

Hardman's fate was decided in 2020 as far as CP was concerned. "He's just a jet-sweep gadget player!!!"

He had to go elsewhere to change that narrative.

I don't think he's very bright. Hill isn't very bright either. I don't say that to insult anyone I'm just pointing out that isn't one of the strengths of either one of these gentlemen. They play a game of emotion and then transition to a money business in the off season that's about the numbers and isn't personal. But people who give their all and learn how to play a selfless team sport will take it personal. They're human.

I think Hardman wanted to be emotionless and professional and not say the wrong thing but he's just not "quick on his feet." He's not much of a communicator. If I'm right about any of this the best thing he could have done would be let his agent handle this and stay out of it. Sounds like he did or he at least wants it to sound like he did.

Not many dudes come out and admit "I gave it my all, I loved 'er, but she didn't want me." They may say she's a cheating whore or blame money issues but one person always loves the other a little more. That's just how it is. People move on - business definitely does. It's hard when you're the one in that position.

and even then, Mahomes would routinely get frustrated with him and make hand gestures after plays trying to get on the same page…but Mecole will always be Mecole. I expect the same to happen with Rodgers, if NY is even able to trade god him.

And then he hurt his groin…

Then he reinjured it in the playoffs.

For a player with his specific skill set, that could be career altering.

I guess we’ll see.

I always thought Hardman played dumb. Like, really dumb. But I felt like this past year was his season to go beyond that and I think we were
robbed of that because he was realllllly close.

Hmm, are we sure about that?

It is not just the state tax rate that matters. I would think overall tax would be a better gauge. According to whatever formula these videos use, shows Missouri with a slightly higher overall tax burden than New Jersey, where the Jets reside.

Missouri on 100k per year, 26.92% tax.
New Jersey on 100k per year, 26.84% tax.

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So BV would have resigned him but CP ran him out of town???

:hmmm: :hmmm: :hmmm:

I doubt any QB on an NFL salary has to worry about feeding their family. And I think the conversation around taking less money for the sake of team success or personal legacy doesn't really apply to non-QBs.

You reckon Brady only felt comfortable in taking less money cos Gisele is loaded?

Isn't his contract still up to 6m or something with incentives?

Was said every single year with him…..

Yes but there’s little question with Hill having moved on Hardman had a real
shot this year to excel in ways he didn’t previously.

That has to be a typo, no?

1 year $1.5m? I would pay that for him even if I knew for a fact that he’d be the exact same player this year as last AND was going to miss half the season. That is peanuts for probably the best gadget guy in the NFL.

And yet they didn’t. From the looks of Mecole’s presser they didn’t even offer him a contract to come back.

That says a lot

LMAO

dude is trash who's success was created by the greatness of andy and patrick

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Mecole Hardman’s deal with the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jets?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Jets</a> is really just 1-year, $1.5 million… <a href="https://t.co/Z93ZowYDXz">https://t.co/Z93ZowYDXz</a></p>&mdash; Devon Clements (@DevclemNFL) <a href="https://twitter.com/DevclemNFL/status/1639972283392335872?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 26, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Not making time to go to Texas to work with PMII and the other WRs until Hill left. Was him putting the nail in his own coffin

This was said right after they drafted Skyy Moore. Pretty direct shot at Mecole..

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I asked assistant GM Mike Borgonzi what Skyy Moore brings to Chiefs that they might have lacked at WR: &quot;He&#39;s dependable. He&#39;s going to run the right route and he&#39;s going to catch the ball.&#39;&#39;</p>&mdash; Adam Teicher (@adamteicher) <a href="https://twitter.com/adamteicher/status/1520216653258272768?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 30, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Hardman is another player who's TRUE value was substantially BELOW what he perceived it to be.

Just like OBJ and several other Chiefs.

Patrick has that effect. ROFL

He's a speed guy. No disrespect to Hardman but Chiefs probably feel they can draft a WR who can do what he does and might have more upside.

We will see if they are right. A little risky but Veach/Reid have earned our trust.

You also have to consider that having Mahomes makes it easier to take some chances w these types of things.

This person is wrong.

His base salary is ~1mm. He then gets a 3mm signing bonus. Then there are the incentives.

Why are you guys so desperate to jump on Hardman and call him trash? The guy was nothing but a good member of our team. Such clownish behavior.

First time? LMAO

Nah it was decided when the coaches demoted him from #2 WR last year and made him a gadget guy themselves and he had the 2nd lowest yards before catch in the league.

The results from 2022 season show that so far he’s cut from the same cloth as Hardman.

If everything you said is true I imagine that would be a valuable player that KC would have made a significant effort to keep…

man what? Rookies make mistakes. Hardman never got better about them and almost refused to address it and if you follow him on social media there's practically zero brain activity going on at most times.

Saying Skyy is cut from the same cloth is pretty ridiculous. Hell he scored a touchdown in the SB and everyone immediately blamed him for lining up wrong when it was Kelce.

Is Kelce cut from the same cloth as Mecole?

The difference is Hill has a better work ethic than just about anyone. Hardman is better known for bowling or Twitch streaming than putting in the extra work. If Hardman had Hill’s work ethic he would be a hell of a lot better.

It’s OKChiefs. He’s a Debbie downer and an idiot.

Truest words spoken in this thread. He was probably the dumbest person on the team. I'm surprised he actually knew any routes.

We'll see. I think Skyy actually has football skills other than straight-line speed. That alone gives him something more than Hardman had.

Heh, no. that might've been a little Scotch-induced hyperbole on my part.

Point I think I was trying to make is that Hardman will never make any kind of name for himself relegated to 3-4 targets per game. At around 5.5 targets per game his projection is over 800 yards, about 30 1st downs and 7-9 TDs. But as the WR4 he'll never average that many targets.

And the health thing is weird to me, because he's never had an injury problem. Last season was the first time he ever missed significant time due to injury. And abdominal injuries are rarely career-ending. Travis has had two abdominal surgeries and he's been fine.

True but if you are taking a one year deal at his position and age you better make sure it is a good fit. Cuz hes gonna need that 3 year deal.

Hardmans skillset is fits perfectly for the gadget role that the Chiefs utilize. Some teams dont have much of a gadget role. Basically he was as successful as he could ever be wirh the Chiefs. One thing we know for certain is hes no more than a WR3. If he was drafted by another team and they tried to make him be a WR and no gadget stuff/sweeps etc he might have even been almost out of the league

As Ive always maintained after we drafted him, hes a fast guy who plays football not a football player who is fast.

Hardman was the third most productive WR on the team last season and may have ended up the 2nd most productive if not for injuries. His projection was over 600 yards and 7-8 receiving TDs (4 rushing?) if he hadn't gotten hurt.

Also, it appears that this year's draft class does offer several gettable options for a similar type of WR that Hardman was for the offense, but with higher floors. Especially if the guy is only going to get 3 targets a game. So maybe that was a factor as well.

I won't pretend to know what Veach is planning, but it looks like he's clearing cap space for some kind of big move for an offensive player. To date, he's only signed one offensive FA, in Taylor. Other than that move, it's been super quiet as far as offensive players are concerned. By this time last season we'd already gone after JJSS and MVS, iirc. Considering the state of the WR room and the unlikelihood of drafting a rookie WR that will instantaneously produce at a high level, that seems to be the play.

It also remains to be seen if Mecole retains all of that speed post surgery

he was just a faster version of clyde for what he actually added to our team

clyde - 66.6 yards per game, .51 TD per game, in 3 years
hardman - 38.8 yards per game, .35 TD per game, in 4 years

don't see many clyde stans around here anymore LMAO

they're gonna find another hardman easy

You're such a butt****ing moron. Good grief.

I don’t think he’s healthy and took a minimum deal from another team that looks to be getting a HOF qb to help him build his value for next offseason. Which -on the surface- seems logical. If he never got hurt, his value would have been much higher. He’s still young and this gives him a chance to rehab his value for a more robust FA period next year.

It just makes no sense that he wouldn’t stay in KC for that deal. They would have been able to utilize the veteran benefit for his whole base salary and his incentives would have Ben mostly unlikely to be earned due to his injury, if I understand that correctly.

It looks like KC never even made him an offer and didn’t want him back at any price.

I don’t get all the hatred towards Hardman. The Chiefs panicked and drafted him a little too high. He was never going to be a Tyreek Hill type player. He provided many big plays over the past 4 years. Sucks he didn’t turn out to be more but his ceiling was always just a speedy gadget player. The Chiefs were hoping it would be more but it didn’t work out that way. It’s how it goes sometimes. Not like he was a bust.

I wish him well.

You think it’s an appropriate to compare a starting RB’s stats to those of a 3rd or 4th option at WR when options 1 and 2 are first ballot HOFers?

You unintentionally made an important OVERALL point here.

Targets.

I think it's a big issue for Hardman, and likely a big issue overall for EVERYONE which is why we haven't landed any 'big name' WR's.

The way this offense is structured post Hill is that no one WR is going to get a quantity of targets week in and week out. Your number of targets will depend on the opponent, the gameplan that week to attack said opponent, and then the way the game unfolds. Are they going to sit back in two deep? Cool, MVS isn't going to get targets, but he is going to force them to stay there, and Juju (now Moore probably) is going to get the ball. Cover one? Look out, here comes Toney to split the field deep and how did Kelce get so open?!

Some games, you'll eat. Some games, you'll be clearing coverage for someone else with a different skillset.

Kelce's going to get near 100 balls. The rest is spread out, and that's no matter who lines up every week.

It doesn't require an elite WR. It DOES require some good, dependable ones, and varied skillsets/body types. And if they execute it well, it's pretty damned unstoppable.

Go ask the Eagles about Toney/Moore/MVS/Kelce/Pacheco/Mckinnon and see what they think about that collection of weaponry.

I did feel like he had improved this year, but I struggle to get upset about losing guys that wait to their contract year to finally put that level of effort in. His talk about him never going to be a number 1 WR with Hill and Watkins here also bothers me, but at the same time, Pringle and Bricks Robinson were often better.

Don't hate the guy, just always rough seeing that level of talent wasted, cause the guy had moves with that ball that a lot of guys just never will.

If they have a WR of the caliber that Kelce is at TE, he's gonna soak up targets.

I'm guessing if he stays healthy next year, Toney will end up in the 80s

Though to keep Toney healthy they very well may limit his snaps. But yeah if someone can consistently get separation and catch the ball they will get the ball.

Go back and look at the boxscore, my friend. PHI would probably say that they aren't scared at all of that collection of receivers. The only one on that list that actually hurt them at all was Kelce. MVS did nothing. Toney and Moore combined for 2 catches and 9 yards. Pacheco didn't catch a pass and McKinnon caught 3 for 15 yards, no TDs.

The fact of the matter is that the Chiefs didn't win that game because of how well the passing attack worked, because it didn't. 182 yards for the game. JuJu didn't do anything in the first half, and most of his catches in the 2nd half were schemed to get him open, because he couldn't do it on his own in the first.

The defense holding PHI to just 11 points in the second half and STs coming up with a huge punt return (that doesn't happen if their punter doesn't shank that punt) played a larger role in that win than our passing game. In fact, it was the running game that got KC back in the game, because our passing attack was so ineffective in the first half.

Did he reinjure himself stepping off the podium at the presser?

Contract Details: Gardner-Johnson, Hardman, Fowler, Murphy-Bunting
March 31st, 2023 at 7:46pm CST • By Ely Allen
Here are some of the details on a few deals reached around the league recently:

C.J. Gardner-Johnson, S (Lions): One-year, $6.5MM. The deal, according to Aaron Wilson of KPRC 2, is completely guaranteed with a signing bonus of $4MM and a fully guaranteed base salary of $2.5MM. The contract also includes a second, void year to spread out his cap hit. Gardner-Johnson can earn an additional $1.5MM based on incentives. There’s a potential for him to make $375,000 each for playing 70-percent of the team’s defensive snaps and/or intercepting three passes. He can make an additional $375,000 each for upping those numbers to 80% and five interceptions. Unfortunately, these potential bonuses are conditional. Even if he checks all those boxes, Gardner-Johnson will reportedly only receive his money if the Lions are in the top 16 in the league for yards allowed.
Mecole Hardman, WR (Jets): One-year, $4.5MM. We’ve already reported some details of Hardman’s new contract. Thanks to Wilson, we have a bit more information on the incentives of the deal. Depending on receptions, Hardman can earn $125,000 if he catches 50 passes or more, $250,000 for 60, and $500,000 for 70. For yards, Hardman can receive $125,000 for 650 receiving yards or more, $250,000 for 750, and $500,000 for 850. For touchdowns, Hardman can earn $125,000 for catching six touchdowns, $250,000 for eight, and $500,000 for 10. Lastly, Hardman can receive $250,000 for a wild card win or bye, $250,000 for a divisional round win, $250,000 for a conference championship, and $250,000 for a Super Bowl win. In total, that makes $2.5MM available through incentives. The Jets are expecting big things out of Hardman, as he would’ve only earned the bottom-level of each incentive once over his four-year career with the Chiefs.

Christ, can you at least put some paragraph breaks in that?

Jets just signed Randall Cobb. This isn't looking too good for Hardman

He's an idiot.

Rodgers is well known for throwing to guys he's familiar with too, so he's really in trouble. He isn't hitting any of those incentives. Plus, Hardman's horrible route running will drive him nuts. He'll lose trust in him very quickly.

Looks like he's just going to be a jet sweep guy...

And then he didnt. At least a few times.

Hope he be a gunner on ST , or else he won’t play much , going from a number 3 in a high powered offense to a number 5-6 on the Jets has got to sting a little

Outside of STs I just don't see him having a role with the Jets. This is definitely one of those decisions that he made that seems to be backfiring. Thoughts on bringing him back if he's cut by the NYJ? Or has that ship sailed? He does bring speed and knowledge of the offense.

Cobb is past old. Surely he can beat him out.

Fellas, Hardman ain't playing special teams. He's probably the 2nd best slot receiver on that team behind Wilson. Wilson though is a great receiver inside and outside so the Jets can be creative with how they want to deploy him. The Jets will have personnel packages that include both Wilson and Hardman on the field.

Randall Cobb is ancient- will be 33 by the team the season starts. Cobb is insurance more than anything, starting Cobb over Hardman doesn't give you the best chance to succeed. Hardman's role with NYJ will be similar to what it was here- gadget + receiver who can stretch a defense. The NYJ receivers don't have a ton of top end speed outside of Hardman, he will be utilized accordingly.

I'm not torn up about Hardman gone at all but we don't have to downplay his capabilities since he isn't a Chief anymore. He's a complimentary weapon with a specific skill set.

I feel like mecole and obj both left because they had too much pride to accept a demotion, so they went to another team to take less money. In mecoles case he took less money and accepted a demotion.

If he was willing to just return kicks and be used as a gadget guy he’d be a nice option and I kinda wish we stuck with him. But I think he had too much pride to do that.

One of the things about winning championships is that everybody seems to have an inflated view of themselves as individual players.

On third down I’m trusting Wilson/Lazard/Cobb way before hardman , probably Davis too.

He's also known for his lack of patience with WRs too, so none of that bodes well for Mecole. Especially in a year where he's trying to learn a new scheme as well. Hell even Mahomes used to get furious with him.

As we all know the guy isn't the sharpest tool in the shed.

I have to believe the Chiefs were essentially offering him Richie James money to play the Richie James role.

Or there would've been no reason at all for him to not stay and try to rehabilitate his market value.

I'd have been willing to go to 4-5 million on a 1-yr deal to keep him. But in the end he decided not to bet on himself and get the most he could up front. It's his call, but yeah - I think it was a massive mistake.

(Side note: I still hope the Jets cut Corey Davis and we bring him in then turf Justin Watson)

Forgot Corey Davis even existed on that roster.

Yeah, Hardman is buried. No chance. Im guessing he didnt see this coming.

I think Mecole may feel that KC held him back. Because he’s dumb.

Remember when Mecole kept saying to reporters he will be gtg next week (after reinjuring his groin) and then Andy said the complete opposite and the team put him on IR shortly after?

I wonder if there’s more to that.

Hardman is a track star playing football. He’s not a football player