According to a report from ESPN, the Buffalo Bills are signing speedy wide receiver Mecole Hardman to their practice squad. The team has not yet confirmed the move.
If he joins the team, Hardman immediately becomes Buffalo’s fastest receiver, a skill that was on display during parts of the six seasons he spent playing for the rival Kansas City Chiefs.
Hardman was with the Green Bay Packers in training camp and eventually made it to their practice squad, but he was released on Sept. 23.
The 27-year-old, who was the Chiefs’ second-round draft pick in 2019 and went on to win three Super Bowl rings, has 80 games on his NFL resume and he has totaled 178 receptions on 258 targets for 2,302 yards and 16 touchdowns, and he added 190 yards on 26 rushing plays with three touchdowns.
Also, he has plenty of experience as a return man, an area the Bills are deeply deficient in right now. Hardman has averaged 9.2 yards on 89 punts, and 23.8 yards on 45 kickoffs.
If the Bills are signing him to the practice squad, and eventually elevate him to the 53-man roster, he could provide a notable boost in the return game, and would give them a skill set on offense that they currently don’t have – the ability to stretch the field vertically.
Throughout his career, he has split time as a boundary receiver as well as a slot receiver. With the Chiefs, he played five regular-season games against the Bills and caught 14 passes for 130 yards and one TD. In four playoff games he managed just four receptions for 32 yards, but he did have four rushes for 80 yards.
In 2023, Hardman signed with the Jets as a free agent but never found a place and after playing just five games, the Jets traded him back to the Chiefs where he finished the season, and then played in Kansas City in 2024.
The Bills already have Gabe Davis on their practice squad, and he recently returned to practice after being sidelined since the middle of 2024 due to knee surgery while he was with the Jaguars. Sean McDermott has been asked multiple times in the last couple weeks about the possibility of Davis being elevated to the active roster as a potential fix for the Bills’ ailing passing game.
On that topic Monday, McDermott said, “We’ll see. It’s been nice getting him back healthy again but that’s the part we have to make sure of before we take another step.”
Sal Maiorana has covered the Buffalo Bills for more than four decades including 36 years as the full-time beat writer/columnist for the D&C. He has written numerous books about the history of the team, and he is also co-host of the BLEAV in Bills podcast/YouTube show. He can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com, and you can follow him on X @salmaiorana and on Bluesky @salmaiorana.bsky.social.
