Is Mecole Hardman a dependable fantasy option in 2020?
Yahoo Fantasy's Matt Harmon and Scott Pianowski discuss the Chiefs receiver’s big play ability and why he may be must-have in one format — but not draftable in another. Subscribe to the Yahoo Fantasy Football Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
Video Transcript
MATT HARMON: I know our producer Raghu-- shoutout to Raghu-- he found this tweet of yours. You mentioned that the Chiefs could barely get Mecole Hardman on the field, and yet he still had touchdowns of 21, 30, 42, 48, 63, 83, and 104 yards as a rookie working with 41 freaking targets.
This is an interesting situation obviously in Kansas City because we know about Tyreek Hill. We know about Travis Kelce. We know that they have QB Jesus himself in Patrick Mahomes. They draft a rookie running back.
I mean, are we-- what's the deal with Sammy Watkins? We've got Mecole Hardman. What are we doing with guys beyond the obvious in Kansas City?
SCOTT PIANOWSKI: The frustrating thing for me with Hardman is that all last year I was thinking, I can't wait until 2020--
MATT HARMON: Yep.
SCOTT PIANOWSKI: --when Watkins isn't here and when Hardman steps into a much bigger role. Watkins was excellent in the play-- I've been a critic of Watkins for a while. But look, two things are unavoidable. One, he was excellent in the playoffs all three games. And two, there's actually a lot of stats that point to him being on the field helps the Chiefs a lot, even when he's not producing himself.
And so I have to accept that maybe there's a value to Watkins that doesn't directly correlate to his bottom line. Now of course any offense that has Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes and Hill and Kelce, I mean, man, they're just at the top of their profession. The fact that they even have talent past those four people is just unfair.
But I get the idea Hardman-- I know this is a very copout type of thing for a fantasy analyst to say. I'm gonna scoop up a lot of Hardman in best ball, and I'm gonna be nervous to draft him in seasonal because I just don't think he's gonna get enough of projectable volume floor to play him week to week, at least until maybe somebody got hurt or something like that. Something changed in Kansas City.
And also it's funny. I love mentioning the distance of his touchdowns and the fact that he had all those explosive splash plays on such limited opportunity. That speaks to how dangerous he is, but it's also just a really hard thing to replicate year over year. Those shot plays fail a lot, no matter how well they're called and how great your quarterback is and how great your coach is and how fast Hardman is. Those are all wonderful things.
But he could go down to two or three touchdowns no fault of his own because it's just hard to throw a 60-yard touchdown pass. It's hard to live that way. So I feel like there's gonna be a day where we can draft Hardman really proactively and he'll be a fun player, maybe a DeSean Jackson type of player at his peak. Unfortunately, I don't think it's gonna be 2020.
