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I haven't given up on hardman becoming a useful receiving threat.
For one thing, he came into the league at 21. Which means last year was his age 22 season, and his age 22 season actually stacks up pretty well vs. Tyreek HIll's first year.
Second, Hardman didn't have a normal offseason program in which to develop his receiving skills between his 1st and second years. Expecting a Hill-like leap in receiving skills was never realistic.
However, beyond the numbers, Hardman doesn't show that ball tracking ability and the capacity to get out of breaks that Hill showed at the end of his rookie year.
What I hope is that Hardman can get smarter this offseason through film study about breaking off routes and finding soft areas in zones. Adding those to his game would make him vastly more useful and turn him into a viable no. 3 threat with big play upside.
Will he? Who knows, and I don't think you can bank on it. But, I don't think it's impossible.
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