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Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Mecole Hardman insisted before the Super Bowl LVIII matchup versus the San Francisco 49ers that there was “no bad blood” regarding his failed stint with the New York Jets this past fall.
That clearly wasn’t the case.
“You just got a new [offensive] coaching staff that came in and there’s no standard there,” Hardman said about what he experienced with the Jets during an appearance on the latest edition of “The Pivot” podcast, per Christian Arnold of the New York Post. “Granted, the defense has more of a stabilized standard with the coaching staff on that side, so the defense has a standard. But the offense is just like, ‘We’ll just figure it out. It’s (quarterback Aaron Rodgers’) show. Let Aaron do what Aaron does.’ Then when Aaron goes down, it’s like we don’t know what to do.”
Rodgers famously suffered a torn Achilles four offensive snaps into the 2023 regular-season opener, and Hardman subsequently participated in a total of 28 offensive snaps across five games before he was traded back to Kansas City.
The 25-year-old first featured for the Chiefs from 2019 through the 2022 campaign, and he ultimately caught a walk-off touchdown pass in overtime of Super Bowl LVIII that clinched a 25-22 Kansas City victory.
Earlier this month, Hardman laughed off any idea that he could return to the Jets this spring. He revealed during “The Pivot” just how eager he was to leave the Big Apple and head back to Kansas City ahead of the 2023 trade deadline.
“I was so checked out, like, it was over with,” Hardman said about the final weeks/days of his Jets tenure. “I had already talked to [Chiefs general manager Brett Veach] and [quarterback Patrick Mahomes], like, ‘Come get me.'”
Both Ryan Morik of Fox News and Reice Shipley of The Comeback mentioned the Chiefs may have violated NFL tampering rules that prohibit teams contacted by a player under contract with a different club “from discussing general terms of the player’s possible employment with the contacted club.”
It’s unclear if the Jets gave Hardman their blessing to reach out to the Chiefs or if the NFL will look into possibly stripping Kansas City of a draft pick over the alleged conversation that occurred between Hardman and Veach before the trade’s completion.
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