The Chiefs Pressure Cooker: An Offensive Weapon's Final Chance to Rise Above
A new series looking at which Chiefs are under the most pressure in 2022
Over the next month, I want to look at some of the Kansas City Chiefs who are going to be under the most pressure during the 2022 NFL season. Obviously, players like Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce have the most importance and therefore the most pressure, but this series is going to look more at which players need to step-up their game in order for the Chiefs to take a step-up and for that player to carve out a long term role.
In a way, it’s looking at which players are poised to take a leap forward, but I don’t plan on limiting it to only unproven players. Instead the Pressure Cooker is more about determining which player needs to have his biggest and best year in 2022 — for his future with the Chiefs or elsewhere.
And there’s no better place to start than at the second most glamorous position on the field: wide receiver.
That’s right. Mecole Hardman is the first player to be in the Pressure Cooker.
Let’s take a look at the recipe.
The Pressure Cooker: Mecole Hardman
Why is Hardman Here?
Quite simply, Hardman has struggled to take that next step during his first three seasons. Yes, his production has increased every season, in terms of yards and receptions, but his efficiency and touchdown production has regressed every season too.
It’s not all his fault. Opponents have forced the Chiefs to play a different style of offense, especially last season, and Hardman has had to battle to make an impact in a loaded wide receiver room.
But at some point the flashes have to start becoming consistent.
When you pair the lack of reliability with the very narrow usage, it becomes difficult to see how the Chiefs plan to build around Hardman for the future. In 2021, he was often reduced to a pure gadget role, evidenced by his eight games with a yards-per-target number below Mahomes’ season-long average of 7.4 yards. Hardman filled a role that season for the Chiefs, but was it because that’s what they needed or what he could provide?
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When He Was At His Best
Hardman had a stretch in 2019 in which he started, or saw significant snaps, in place of Tyreek Hill, who was injured. This stretch lasted just four weeks, but it saw Hardman have his highest production output of any four-game stretch of his career.
Part of the reason was simply Hill’s absence forced the Chiefs to throw to other players, but also at play was how Hardman was used. He fulfilled a lot of Hill’s role in terms of playing out of the slot and being utilized on some first- or second-read deep routes like the play above.
This was clearly the best role for Hardman, but upon Hill’s return it made no sense to keep Hardman in that role, and he struggled to match his success elsewhere.
Now, with Hill gone to the Miami Dolphins, Hardman should be able to step back into that role and run a lot more of the routes that would have typically been assigned to Hill.
How Hardman Will Rise
Hardman will come out of the pressure cooker looking pristine if he can step back into the player who excelled in 2019 and continue to build on his overall receiving game that he’s shown some improvement in since entering the NFL.
He’s gotten better as a route runner, but even that has come and gone.
He has shown a much better understanding of coverage concepts and how defenders are playing him, but then he seems to forget what leverage is entirely on the very next play.
So much of Hardman’s game is a roller-coaster ride. Hopefully being thrust back into a more prominent role that he feels more confident in boosts his consistency in these areas as well.
How Hardman Could Crack
The NFL seemingly banded together in 2021 to simply say, “Tyreek Hill and the Chiefs aren’t beating us with their vertical passing game.” And they more or less did. If Hill couldn’t find success last year on “Go’s” or “Deep Overs” will Hardman this season?
Hill was forced to almost entirely change his game in 2021 and become a defacto possession receiver, and if Hardman is faced with those same challenges, the path to success may be as muddied as ever — especially after Kansas City brought Juju Smith-Schuster, Marquez Valdes-Scantling and Skyy Moore into the fold. These are all players who have all shown a better ability, or the traits to have more success, in the short to intermediate of the field in these same scenarios.
If Hardman’s production ends up in the same ballpark that it has been, there is a chance that he just continues down the same path of getting screen passes, end-arounds, and shallow dump-offs. If that’s the case after the Chiefs parted ways with Hill, it may not be enough to keep Hardman around in Kansas City or net him a significant contract somewhere else in the league in 2023.
In the End
It’s year four for Hardman and that means plenty. He’s a year out of the dreaded “sophomore slump”, he’s entering a contract year, and this is his last chance at being a cheap option. There is plenty of organic pressure placed on any player in his situation, and that’s before getting to all of the specific details.
In Hardman’s situation, everything that adds more pressure is also providing an avenue to take that next step. Hill’s absence will lead to more opportunities, and being asked to do more opens him up to have more production, and expanding his role allows him to showcase his development more freely.
The big difference between this Pressure Cooker and the one in the kitchen is that in this scenario it’s entirely up to Hardman to rise or crack. Is he going to chain those flashes together and take that final leap, or will he continue down the same path and fall into an afterthought that has to be fit into a very narrow spot?
The 2022 NFL season will answer that question, and I’m not sure there’s any way to get an answer before then.
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Bringing up an old and bad memory, was 17 in the wrong spot on the first 3rd down of Super Bowl LV? My belief is that he was and instead of being up 7-0, we punted. Am I correct in your mind?