Former New York Jets wide receiver turned Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl hero Mecole Hardman has been making headlines recently. Hardman made an appearance on The Pivot with Ryan Clark and made some bold comments about his former team.
It has drawn several reactions, as Jets’ punter Thomas Morestead fired back at some of the comments Hardman made in a social media post. He cautioned people to be careful about getting information from a former disgruntled player who lost his job to a rookie.
Hardman was critical of Jets’ special teams coach Brant Boyer, as their relationship became icy during the preseason. Things boiled over when Boyer told Hardman he would be returning punts against the Chiefs in Week 4 after Xavier Gipson was injured.
Not appreciative of being told minutes before kickoff, Hardman refused to return punts. At that point, he was checked out and reached out to Cheifs’ general manager Brett Veach to re-acquire him in a trade.
Boyer wasn’t the only coordinator who Hardman had a lot to say about. During his appearance on The Pivot, he also tore into offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett, who has come under fire for being unprepared throughout the season. It was Aaron Rodgers’ show and without him there to lead it, things fell apart.
“You just got a new (offensive) coaching staff that came in and there’s no standard there. Everybody does what they want to do. 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 Aaron’s show. Let Aaron do what Aaron does.’ Then when Aaron goes down, it’s like we don’t know what to do.” (H/T Rich Cimini of ESPN on X)
Hardman isn’t the first person to call out Hackett and he likely won’t be the last. Hackett has had virtually zero success running an offense in the NFL without Rodgers, one of the greatest to ever do it, running things. From the sounds of it, Hackett isn’t installing much of a game plan as Rodgers handles a majority of it on his own.
In addition to the comments about Hackett, Hardman felt that he was underutilized by the Jets. Other than emerging star Garrett Wilson, Hardman didn’t believe there was a wide receiver on the team better than him.
“It’s the lies and the way they handled me. I didn’t like it at all.” He made it clear that, other than Garrett Wilson, he felt he was as good or better than every WR on the team, as shared by Cimini.
While Hardman’s stint with the Jets was not a good one, it would be hard to argue against his statement about being the No. 2 behind Wilson. Allen Lazard was second amongst wide receivers for the Jets with 23 receptions in 2023, with Xavier Gipson right behind him with 21.
It is hard to imagine Hardman would have done any worse than the players the Jets were giving opportunities to. Now a two-time Super Bowl champion, he will be a free agent once again this offseason, looking for another team to land with.
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