The Kansas City Chiefs just lost wide receiver Mecole Hardman. The jack-of-all-trades offensive weapon heads to injured reserve with an abdomen injury.
Chiefs place WR Mecole Hardman on IR (abdomen). https://t.co/DBwjRLTAAE
The Chiefs have largely struggled to replicate Tyreek Hill’s production after trading him to the Miami Dolphins. Though their offense hasn’t missed a beat, they’ve been forced to use multiple players to do what Hill did.
Those players have been JuJu Smith-Schuster, Kadarius Toney and Mecole Hardman. The former two will be without their third counterpart now, though and Smith-Schuster may miss time with a concussion.
Mecole Hardman injury: What happened to Chiefs WR?
The wide receiver injured his abdomen prior to the win last week over the Jacksonville Jaguars. He was out for the game and had not practiced the entire week before the Chiefs decided to place him on injured reserve Thursday.
He was coming off a very good game in which he recorded six catches for 79 yards and a touchdown during the Week 9 matchup with the Tennessee Titans. He had also scored in the two weeks prior, but will now be unable to do so for a while.
How long will Mecole Hardman be out for?
While the wide receiver is entering the injured reserve fairly late in the season, he will more than likely not miss the entire rest of the year.
Recently, the NFL adjusted the length of time players had to be on injured reserve if placed there to four weeks. That means he will be out for those four weeks at minimum.
That means his earliest possible return date is Week 15 against the Houston Texans, though he may be out longer than that. Even though he missed last week’s game, that is irrelevant to the amount of time he has to be on IR.
In his absence, the Chiefs wide receiver corps looks like this:
- Smith-Schuster (concussed)
- Marquez Valdes-Scantling (illness)
- Toney
- Justin Watson
- Skyy Moore
The Chiefs now have a bit of a hole at that position, so they’ll hope for the soonest possible return for the speedy wide receiver.
