Kansas City Chiefs Head Coach Andy Reid played his starters for the entire first quarter of the Chiefs’ second preseason game against the Arizona Cardinals on Friday evening. Overall, it appears Kansas City is ready to roll into the regular season. They’ve won both of their first two exhibition matchups so far in fairly dominant fashion on both sides of the football.
However, what was very apparent during Friday’s game against the Cards was the miscommunication between quarterback Patrick Mahomes and wide receiver Mecole Hardman.
The 2021 preseason hasn’t been kind to Hardman. For one reason or another, he’s struggled to find his stride in a year where expectations are for him to replace Sammy Watkins as the starting receiving opposite Tyreek Hill.
Through two preseason games, Hardman has been targeted nine times with four catches for 39 yards and a touchdown that was an underthrown ball from backup Chad Henne.
Against the Cardinals, most of Mahomes’ passes that were intended to go Hardman’s way, either sailed too far out of reach or went through the receiver’s hands. Whether the erratic throws were to do with Mahomes putting too much on the ball or Hardman not running his route properly is unclear, however, Hardman was the first to admit something was awry between him and his quarterback during his post-game presser following the 17-10 victory.
“It was cool to get a lot of reps out there and get some targets and some catches – [I thought] it went good,” he said of his performance. “I think I could’ve caught the one in the corner of the end zone, we just had some miscommunication [between] me and [Patrick] Mahomes, but that’s why we’re out there, to get better. I came out of the break wrong, I could’ve been more square to [be able to] jump and get the ball, wherever it was at, so I kind of just got to be in a better position,” he explained.
Mahomes also shouldered the blame for the erred throws and miscues, explaining he should’ve done a better job throwing the ball.
“The first end zone play, I probably just have to throw the ball with a little bit more touch,” he said of the missed touchdown connection in the first quarter. “I threw a little hard. I tried to really rip it in there, and it was a little too high for him to get both his hands on it. The second one where he kind of ran across the field, it’s a play you always see us run with Tyreek [Hill], and we used to work on that timing of finding that right spot because he has to speed to beat that guy across the field. I don’t know what the other one was, but I thought he had a good game. Obviously, there are a few mistakes here and there, but you saw he made the big play on that cover zero play where Chad [Henne] put it up for him, and you want to see those things.”
As the Chiefs move forward towards their final exhibition game against the Minnesota Vikings, Mahomes emphasized that certain miscues like last night are normal for the preseason and they just have to work through them.
“[This is something] we always talk about during training camp, and during these preseason games [and] kind of training guys to kind of be on the same page as we are,” Mahomes said of the process. “That throw on that over route where I kind of threw it out of the back of the end zone at the end of that first drive. It’s kind of showing that that’s the spot that I kind of need him to be at that corner of the end zone. And even though he didn’t catch it, he’ll know that the next time, and I think the best thing with Mecole is that he doesn’t make the same mistake twice. He really has learned a lot being behind Tyreek and learning how to play that position,” Mahomes explained.
The preseason struggles of Mecole Hardman aren’t the sort of thing fans were hoping to see, especially with two young guys, Byron Pringle and Darius Fountain, who are lighting it up these last two weeks. However, the team seems to trust that Hardman and Mahomes will get on the same page that made the duo so successful over the two seasons.
After all, it’s only preseason…
