Hardman sounds off on the Jets

[Unruly Jets Fan]

Former Jets WR/Super Bowl hero Mecole Hardman, appearing on @Realrclark25's Pivot podcast, shed some light on what led to his trade from the Jets. For instance:

* Hardman said he refused to return punts vs KC because he felt STC Brant Boyer had misled him about the punt-returning job in camp, and that he didn't have enough time to prepare when asked on the night of the KC game to step in for Xavier Gipson, who had tweaked an ankle a few days earlier. Hardman said he was dealing with his own injury (hyperextended pinky) that made it tough to catch. He said Saleh tried to convince him to do it, but Hardman said he told him, "I'm not catching for that man (Boyer)." 

* Hardman candidly admitted that, by that point, "I was so checked out, like, it was over with. I had already talked to (KC GM Brett) Veach and Pat (Mahomes), like, ‘Come get me.’" Two weeks later, he was traded back to KC.

* On why it didn't work out with the Jets, Hardman said, "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.

* On the Jets' 2023 culture/Hackett: "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."
youtube.com/watch?v=C6sdL8…

[Beerfish]

Validation that the offense is a sheer and utter clown show.

Hardman totally stinks and has no football instincts at all but his comments about the offense are spot on.

[David Harris]

Generally, sounds about right.
 

Hardman sucks as a wideout tho 

[Matt39]

Hard to take him seriously when he refused to return a punt because of a bruised pinky.

[OtherwiseHappyinLife]

1 minute ago, Matt39 said:

Hard to take him seriously when he refused to return a punt because of a bruised pinky.

Sounds like a bruised ego.

 

Morphing into dad now 96.892% complete.

[Augustiniak]

3 minutes ago, Matt39 said:

Hard to take him seriously when he refused to return a punt because of a bruised pinky.

He checked out, he knew he was gone so why risk more injury

[Lith]

His intent may be to rag on the Jets, but some of those comments are pretty self-damning as well.

[Larz]

Yeah every time a player praises a coach, “he’s a straight shooter “ almost always comes up. 
 

Lying is just mind boggling incompetence.  
 

nobody is coming this year. Forget free agency. Between this and Keith Carters reputation forget rebuilding the line too

The worst part is losing Hogan and Alexander means they have nobody in house to handle the GM job on an interim basis and the coaching staff is obviously really thin too. Maybe Middleton again but if they fire these guys off cycle it’s a disaster, if they let them have the season it’s a disaster. 
 

J!

[T0mShane]

Terrible football player and an awful signing. Hardman almost single-handedly lost the Ravens playoff game for the Chiefs. That said, sounds like they promised him a role on offense, then found out he was never going to be able to handle that role. Bottom line: stop letting Rodgers pick the players.

[TuscanyTile2]

29 minutes ago, David Harris said:

Generally, sounds about right.

Hardman sucks as a wideout tho 

Agreed, but he was still the 2nd best WR we had last year.

[Barry McCockinner]

18 minutes ago, Lith said:

His intent may be to rag on the Jets, but some of those comments are pretty self-damning as well.

Exactly what I thought. Dude sucks and has a poor attitude.

Who gives a crap what he thinks?

[Wit]

The state of the offensive side of the ball is so sad. Even Mahomes needs a structure and system. You can have a star QB and discipline. The nfl more than any other sport needs this to be successful.


Sent from my iPhone using JetNation.com mobile app

[Tooooon]

25 minutes ago, Augustiniak said:

He checked out, he knew he was gone so why risk more injury

He’s a professional football player under contract, you don’t get to check out.  And if you do, FU. 

[TuscanyTile2]

38 minutes ago, Unruly Jets Fan said:

Former Jets WR/Super Bowl hero Mecole Hardman, appearing on @Realrclark25's Pivot podcast, shed some light on what led to his trade from the Jets. For instance:

* Hardman said he refused to return punts vs KC because he felt STC Brant Boyer had misled him about the punt-returning job in camp, and that he didn't have enough time to prepare when asked on the night of the KC game to step in for Xavier Gipson, who had tweaked an ankle a few days earlier. Hardman said he was dealing with his own injury (hyperextended pinky) that made it tough to catch. He said Saleh tried to convince him to do it, but Hardman said he told him, "I'm not catching for that man (Boyer)." 

* Hardman candidly admitted that, by that point, "I was so checked out, like, it was over with. I had already talked to (KC GM Brett) Veach and Pat (Mahomes), like, ‘Come get me.’" Two weeks later, he was traded back to KC.

* On why it didn't work out with the Jets, Hardman said, "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.

* On the Jets' 2023 culture/Hackett: "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."
youtube.com/watch?v=C6sdL8…

The CS doesn't seem to be respected at all.  I get it's "just a pinky" but ZW wasn't happy with the CS either.  Possibly (and this is just a guess) the only reason Saleh's "convincing" worked on ZW was the promise of "we'll trade you this offseason".   Not just these 2 guys either btw.  Eli Moore is another.  I think there might be more.

[SomebodytoAnybody47]

It’s hilarious how good he thinks he is. 

Hard to trust what he’s saying when it’s smothered in bitterness. 

Id imagine they told them he’d have a large role behind Wilson, in the slot, etc. Then Rodgers went down, he cries he’s not more involved and Gipson did just as much without the sh*t attitude and cost. 

[Biggs]

His attitude is very Jetsy.  Surprised it didn’t work out.

[JetPotato]

I didn't need an insider's perspective to know the offense has no standards.

[Augustiniak]

15 minutes ago, TuscanyTile2 said:

The CS doesn't seem to be respected at all.  I get it's "just a pinky" but ZW wasn't happy with the CS either.  Possibly (and this is just a guess) the only reason Saleh's "convincing" worked on ZW was the promise of "we'll trade you this offseason".   Not just these 2 guys either btw.  Eli Moore is another.  I think there might be more.

Nobody in the building knows offense so instead of replacing the coaches and finding guys who know offense they traded for rodgers and gave him the offense.  When he got hurt there was nobody else, yet again, who knew offense.  And that’s going to repeat in 2024.

[varjet]

Every week there will be another snippet on the type of clown show this is.  

[JoeNamathsFurCoat]

1 hour ago, Unruly Jets Fan said:

Hardman candidly admitted that, by that point, "I was so checked out, like, it was over with. I had already talked to (KC GM Brett) Veach and Pat (Mahomes), like, ‘Come get me.’" Two weeks later, he was traded back to KC.

What an a—hole

[TuscanyTile2]

20 minutes ago, varjet said:

Every week there will be another snippet on the type of clown show this is.  

The Athletic article.  The Cimini (?) article.  Hardman.  I can't wait to hear what's next!

[Mogglez]

Given his stats with both the Jets & Chiefs, who had absolutely NOTHING established when they traded for him back, it’s safe to say that he should have been on the bench.  Right now he’s got his 15 minutes of fame for catching the last pass of the season which, truthfully, any WR would have caught, even ass-hands Lazard.

I also really love the part where he opens the Chiefs up to tampering charges.  That complete and utter lack of self-awareness is probably why Mecole lost the job that he was “promised” to Lazard and an UDFA rookie.

Someone tell this guy that enough is enough already.  He wasn’t what we thought we were getting, and we did him a solid by trading him to the Chiefs.  There’s a really high chance this dude probably won’t be on KC’s opening roster next year, and he’ll probably go back to ragging on the Chiefs for a second time, since that’s he did that last year during free agency.  The Jets staff (which wasn’t great, IMO) isn’t why he’s a JAG.  He’s the reason that he is a JAG.

[bicketybam]

Did he happen to say what it was like catching passes from Zach Wilson?

[TuscanyTile2]

5 minutes ago, Mogglez said:

Given his stats with both the Jets & Chiefs, who had absolutely NOTHING established when they traded for him back, its safe to say that he should have been on the bench.  Right now he’s got his 15 minutes of fame for catching the last pass of the season which, truthfully, any WR would have caught, even ass-hands Lazard.

I also really love the part where he opens the Chiefs up to tampering charges.  That complete and utter lack of self-awareness is probably why Mecole lost the job that he was “promised” to Lazard and an UDFA rookie.

Someone tell this guy that enough is enough already.  He wasn’t what we thought we were getting, and we did him a solid by trading him to the Chiefs.  There’s a really high chance this dude probably won’t be on KC’s opening roster next year, and he’ll probably go back to ragging on the Chiefs for a second time, since that’s he did that last year during free agency.  The Jets staff (which wasn’t great, IMO) why he’s a JAG.  He’s the reason that he is a JAG.

I agree with the criticism of the guy but I still think he would've been our 2nd best WR last year.

[JTJet]

1 hour ago, Unruly Jets Fan said:

Hardman candidly admitted that, by that point, "I was so checked out, like, it was over with. I had already talked to (KC GM Brett) Veach and Pat (Mahomes), like, ‘Come get me.’" Two weeks later, he was traded back to KC.

Is that not tampering?

[chirorob]

Some of that may be true.  Says a lot about his character that 4 games into a 5 million dollar contract he was "So checked out"

[bicketybam]

Some of that may be true.  Says a lot about his character that 4 games into a 5 million dollar contract he was "So checked out"

I know it must have been a massive disappointment going from Rodgers to Wilson, but be a professional.

[Green Ghost]

Ever since the season ended we’ve been reading stories about how incompetent this CS is, and the lack of discipline on this team.

Every time another one comes out though, a large percentage of people here want to blame Rossini, Rosenblatt, Elijah Moore,  Dion Dawkins and Mecole Hardman for being bad at their jobs or having man boobs.

I wonder who will be the person to speak out next, and what we can say bad about them?

[Bleedin Green]

Hardman sucks and the Jets suck, these are not mutually exclusive.  However, I would laugh my ass off if the next things that come of this is the Jets filing tampering charges against KC.  Not that they would even get anything of significance from it, but you can't ignore the special level of stupid from Hardman right there, although seems about on par with his NFL career.

[Mogglez]

11 minutes ago, TuscanyTile2 said:

I agree with the criticism of the guy but I still think he would've been our 2nd best WR last year.

His inability to catch in training camp paired with his piss-poor diaper filling attitude suggests otherwise.

Xavier Gibson and Jason Brownlee didn’t have their jobs handed to them.  They earned it.  Through the ups and downs, they didn’t “check out” like Mecole did.  That one paragraph perfectly explains his entire career up to this point:

Extremely talented athlete who has zero work ethic and wants everything handed to him or else he just throws his hands up in the air to give up.  

Normally I wouldn’t give this bullsh*t one iota of thought, but the “I think I’m better than every WR not named Garrett Wilson” portion pissed me off.  Not only is it untrue because of the point made above, it’s his own doing and he wants to blame every single person other than the man in the mirror.

”Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t want to work.”

[rex-n-effect]

I don't doubt what he says is generally true about the team or his attitude. He's an idiot for trashing a former team and admitting he gave up mid-season when he's set to be a free agent in a matter of weeks. Like who's lining up to get a serving of that?

[rex-n-effect]

15 minutes ago, bicketybam said:

Did he happen to say what it was like catching passes from Zach Wilson?

I'm surprised this wasn't pointed out in the OP but the main reason why he checked out so early is because he didn't get more game time catching ZW passes. 

[TuscanyTile2]

2 minutes ago, Mogglez said:

His inability to catch in training camp paired with his piss-poor diaper filling attitude suggests otherwise.

Xavier Gibson and Jason Brownlee didn’t have their jobs handed to them.  They earned it.  Through the ups and downs, they didn’t “check out” like Mecole did.  That one paragraph perfectly explains his entire career up to this point:

Extremely talented athlete who has zero work ethic and wants everything handed to him or else he just throws his hands up in the air to give up.  

Normally I wouldn’t give this bullsh*t one iota of thought, but the “I think I’m better than every WR not named Garrett Wilson” portion pissed me off.  Not only is it untrue because of the point made above, it’s his own doing and he wants to blame every single person other than the man in the mirror.

”Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t want to work.”

Brownlee barely got on the field until late in the season, no?  And Gipson was a punt returner who defaulted to WR2 because the rest of the group was so awful.  

[Beerfish]

1 hour ago, Matt39 said:

Hard to take him seriously when he refused to return a punt because of a bruised pinky.

The fact he refused to field a punt does not make the comments about the joke offense any less valid.

[Green Ghost]

Hardman gets pissed at the CS. HE calls KC asking to come get him, THEY didn’t call him.

Either he goes to the Jets and asks them to send him back, or KC calls, explains what happened and either team proposes a trade.

Maybe I’m wrong (because I don’t know the rules on tampering), but I don’t understand how KC can be accused of it here?