Mecole Hardman unfairly named Chiefs player with most to prove

PFF named wide receiver Mecole Hardman as the Kansas City Chiefs player with the most to prove in the 2022 season.

The National Football League is well-known as a brutal competition year in and year out for even some of the most talented players. Injuries and fatigue are only part of the equation, while other players are forced into unhelpful schemes, toxic environments, overwhelmed coaches, and/or poor quarterback play. To stay successful in the league is a considerable achievement, which means most players can be said to have “something to prove.”

The folks at Pro Football Focus recently combed through the rosters of every NFL team to see which players might have the most to prove—as if 99 percent of players don’t already feel that pressure. When it came to the Kansas City Chiefs, they pointed to wide receiver Mecole Hardman as the player with the most to prove. Here’s part of what they had to say:

"Hardman hasn’t lived up to the hype that accompanied him when he was selected in the second round of the 2019 NFL Draft, posting a 72.0 PFF grade since entering the NFL."

While Hardman definitely has something to prove this season, it feels unfair to say he has more to prove than anyone else. He’s proved to be a productive target and useful mismatch for the Chiefs for the last few years as well as an electric returner.

Let’s also not mischaracterize the context into which he was drafted. PFF notes the “hype” around Hardman, but the truth is that Brett Veach selected Hardman in the second round of the 2019 NFL Draft at a tense point in which most of us felt as if Tyreek Hill would likely never play another down in the NFL. Hardman was insurance for Hill and then became somewhat repetitive in the offense when the Cheetah came back—not that Hardman was not useful but that some skills were redundant.

At this point, the Chiefs aren’t demanding all that much more from Hardman than before, even with Hill traded to the Miami Dolphins. The Chiefs have completely rebuilt the wide receiver corps for the 2022 season with free agents Marquez Valdes-Scantling and JuJu Smith-Schuster and the drafting of Skyy Moore in the second round. With Travis Kelce also in play, Hardman is one of five pass-catching targets working in concert together to move the chains—and we’ve not even touched a loaded backfield, Jody Fortson, and the like.

Hardman does have a path to greater production with Hill out of the way, and perhaps he takes that step forward, but there are players with much more to prove on the roster than Hardman.