The Vikings have shown a bit of interest in former Chiefs wide receiver Mecole Hardman, per a report.
The market for Mecole Hardman has taken a little bit longer to unfold in free agency than most wide receivers, but that was to be expected coming into the NFL offseason. That’s because Hardman not only endured multiple injuries during the 2022 season, but he also began the offseason with surgery to correct his issue.
On Monday, we heard the first bit of rumored interest in Hardman as a potential addition in free agency when Darren Wolfson, a reporter for KSTP in the Twin Cities, reported a connection on the part of the Minnesota Vikings.
Specifically, Wolfson was answering fan questions on Twitter and reported that the Vikings engaged in “casual dialogue” on Hardman, which is definitely a sort of soft shoeing with the topic. It’s a way of indicating interest and perhaps some signaling between sides without having any harder evidence of a visit or contractual discussions or even whether Hardman would want to play for the NFC North team.
Here’s the post from Wolfson:
Casual dialogue on Hardman = one.
— Darren Wolfson (@DWolfsonKSTP) March 20, 2023
If that sounds like a weak link, it is. That in itself, however, is a sign of how teams are viewing the market for Hardman at this point. He still has weeks to go until he’s reportedly healthy following postseason surgery on his groin to repair an injury that kept him out of every game but one from Week 9 through the Super Bowl.
Coming into this season, Hardman must have had much greater hopes for the way he might wrap up his rookie deal with the Chiefs as the senior wide receiver in a remade room. Instead, he found himself limited by a heel injury to start the year only to battle the pelvic/groin injury for the final two-thirds of a contract year.
According to early reports, Hardman was going to need eight weeks to heal from surgery which could make him available for physicals or workouts for interested teams right around the 2023 NFL Draft. That sort of timing could make things interesting for the overall market.