Mecole Hardman Shed Light on the Jets' Major Aaron Rodgers Mistakes

Mecole Hardman didn't spend long with the New York Jets, but the Kansas City Chiefs' Super Bowl hero wide receiver was there long enough to pick out plenty of issues within the Jets' offense.

According to Hardman, who appeared on Ryan Clark's "The Pivot" podcast on Tuesday, the Jets did very little to adjust their offense after superstar Aaron Rodgers went down on the first drive of the season.

That led to a number of issues throughout the season, most notably because the Jets built an offense around Rodgers' singular talents, which Wilson wasn't equipped to match.

"People don't understand: Aaron is the offense," Hardman said. "His thought process and his ability to get anything that he wants is scary. There's no bad play with Aaron."

Hardman added that Rodgers is similar to Tom Brady in his ability to read defenses. But the receiver pointed out that a coach needs to be ready to adjust in the event that a player is injured. He noted that when Patrick Mahomes got hurt one season, the Chiefs went 4-1 without him because Andy Reid highlighted the skills of Chad Henne and Matt Moore.

"[The Jets] put a lot of pressure on Zach Wilson to try to carry [Rodgers'] role, rather than making the offense to where he's at his best," Hardman said. "They didn't do that."

Newsweek reached out to the Jets by email on Wednesday to request comment.

The Jets' issues went much deeper this season, according to Hardman, who admitted he was completely checked out from the team a couple of weeks before he was ultimately dealt back to the Chiefs in October.

"Like it [was] over already," Hardman said. "I talked to Veach and Pat, like, 'Hey bro, come get me. What are y'all doing? What are we talking about? Come get me.'"

ESPN's Rich Cimini posted on X, formerly Twitter, that the "come get me" comment might spark interest for the Jets if they want to pursue charges of tampering. For his part, Hardman posted that he didn't talk to the Chiefs before the trade.

The Chiefs ultimately did get Hardman back on the team—sending out a sixth- and seventh-round pick in 2025—but not before Hardman clashed with Jets special team coordinator Brant Boyer. Hardman told The Pivot that Boyer criticized him during the preseason for dropping punts in practice after he hyper-extended his pinkie finger.

So later in the season when the Jets asked Hardman to catch punts in a game, Hardman refused.

"I didn't get talked to on Thursday, Friday or Saturday. I have not had one word to this man," Hardman said. "Sunday on the field, we out there catching punts. I got pads on, we're going to play. [...] Special team coordinator come to me. Like 'hey, I need you to be the starting returner this game.' I said, 'No. I'm not returning punts for you, bro.' He said, 'Oh you don't want to do it?' 'No. Why would I want to return punts for you?'"

Hardman said Boyer told him he would "remember that."

"What you going to do bro?" Hardman said. "I'm not starting. I'm going to leave. So what worse can you do to me?"

Hardman added that he doesn't want to back to New York, to which Clark joked "After this? You ain't. No trip."

"The lies and the way they handled me, I didn't like it at all," Hardman said. "You can't do that to a player, bro. A player you paid at that."