Jets WR Mecole Hardman Jr. goes from one super quarterback to another
Jets wide receiver Mecole Hardman speaks to reporter sduring training camp at the Atlantic Health Jets Training Center in Florham Park, N.J., on Saturday. Credit: Patrick E. McCarthy
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — Mecole Hardman Jr.’s career is off to a super start. He has won two rings in four seasons and can say he has caught passes from Patrick Mahomes and Aaron Rodgers.
“Oh, yeah, I brag on it a little bit,” Hardman said after practice Saturday. “Pat to Aaron, no drop-off. It’s kind of hard to go from Pat to a lot of people. But when you go from Pat to A-Rod, it’s like, ‘OK, cool.’ ”
So who’s better?
Hardman just laughed and said Rodgers is “a level above” because of his experience of being in the NFL for 19 years, but he added that both are “Hall of Fame QBs.”
The speedy receiver left Kansas City and signed a one-year deal with the Jets in the offseason. Hardman went from a Super Bowl-winning team to one with Super Bowl aspirations, and he’s trying to help them get there.
During an OTA meeting with his new team, Hardman addressed the group and said that in Kansas City, everything from Day 1 is about winning a championship. He said it won’t just happen because the Jets have Rodgers.
“You get a quarterback like A-Rod and it’s, ‘Oh, we’re going to the championship,’ ” Hardman said. “It’s not like that. If anything, it’s more of a target on our back that you got A-Rod and teams want to get a win against him.
“Instead of looking at it like that, let’s look at it like we got to work harder and give everybody our best shot because everybody’s going to give us their best shot. We still got to work. Over there [in KC], we didn’t care about that. It’s tunnel vision. We’re working on what we need to work on to get better every day and everything else will take care of itself.”
This goes hand-in-hand with the message Robert Saleh has delivered to his team. He believes in addressing those expectations, embracing them, but making sure you’re putting in the work to achieve them. Basically, “now what?” Saleh said.
“You still got to attack every single moment of the day,” he said. “If you do that, you at least give yourself a chance to achieve what everyone’s expecting you to. If you just sit there and look at the trophy way down the road, well, you’re going to forget all the road that it takes to get there.”
Hardman said many of his new teammates have asked him questions about how certain things were done in Kansas City and what it took to win. He’s enjoying sharing those experiences, as well as his new and evolving role with the Jets.
Practice ended Saturday with Hardman lined up inside in a red-zone drill and leaping to catch a touchdown pass from Rodgers in the back of the end zone.
In Nathaniel Hackett’s offense, the way Hardman is used will be different from his role in Kansas City, where Travis Kelce and Tyreek Hill were the main focal points. Kansas City ran a lot of jet sweeps and gadget plays for Hardman, who has 16 career receiving touchdowns and two rushing scores.
Hardman said that was his role and he did what was asked of him. Saleh said those things won’t completely go away because they’re part of Hardman’s “superpower,” but the Jets hope to make him a more complete receiver.
“The thing we’re committed to is helping him evolve his route-running and to get him away from just being a high-cross guy and a go-ball guy and see if we can help him in the intermediate game and strengthen that part of his game,” Saleh said. “He’s working on it. It’s going to take more deliberate work for everybody. He’s off to a good start.”
Hardman likes the change.
“You have to run routes, you have to learn defenses, you have to learn calls. I think the offense makes you be like that,” Hardman said. “I think Coach Hackett has done a good job moving me around and putting me in different spots on the field and also letting me do the things that I’m good at, which is the gadget stuff and jet sweeps and all the deep balls. He’s implementing it really well and I’m enjoying it.”
Al Iannazzone covers the Jets for Newsday after spending nearly two decades on the NBA beat with Knicks and Nets.
