Arrowhead Pride
The Kansas City wideout won’t be activated to the 53-man roster before Wednesday’s deadline.
It looks like the Kansas City Chiefs will enter Sunday’s AFC Championship game against the Buffalo Bills without wide receiver Mecole Hardman, who caught the game-winning touchdown catch that ended Super Bowl LVIII last February.
“We’ll probably put him back on IR,” head coach Andy Reid said of Hardman on Wednesday, which was the deadline for activating him to the 53-man roster. Without that roster move, he’ll remain on IR for the rest of the season.
The Chiefs will likely be able to do just fine without the sixth-year veteran, who got another chance to stay with his original team after its new free-agent wideout Hollywood Brown was injured during the preseason.
Still, Hardman has only been on the field for 10% of this season’s offensive snaps. Now that Brown has returned — and Hardman’s ability as a returner has been overshadowed by second-year wideout Nikko Remigio, who ended up with a roster spot when Hardman was placed on IR in December — there may not be room for him on the roster any longer.
So we could be seeing Hardman’s last days with the team that drafted him in the second round (56th overall) in 2019. While he’s never been the team’s No. 1 wideout, he’s always been able to find a role. Along the way, he’s made a number of memorable plays — and has been a part of all three of the team’s recent Super Bowl victories. As a member of the 2024 squad, he might even earn a fourth championship ring in a few weeks.
But he doesn’t believe he’s been a “forgotten man” in the Kansas City organization.
“I don’t really look at it like that,” he told reporters in November, before suffering the knee injury that pushed him onto IR. “I think I’m more so just a guy of opportunity. I’ve always been like that since I got here. And that’s kind of how I played that role: whenever the opportunity presents itself, just take advantage of it — no matter the circumstances.”
