Kansas City Chiefs HC Andy Reid briefed reporters on the injury situation following practice on Friday.
After he wasn’t spotted at practice for the past two days, Reid confirmed that WR Mecole Hardman suffered a setback during practice on Wednesday.
“Mecole (Hardman) will not play, he’ll be out,” Reid said. “He had a setback on Wednesday. He just isn’t ready yet. We’ll keep bringing him along and see how he does.”
Hardman won’t be activated to the 53-man roster and play in Week 17 against the Denver Broncos. With his 21-day practice window set to expire next week, Reid didn’t seem too worried about the possibility of Hardman not being activated from injured reserve.
“Yeah, so I believe that’s Wednesday,” Reid said. “I’m not that worried about it. As long as he’s progressing and trying to work to get better here we’ll be OK. If he can’t, then he can’t and we’ll move on and keep going with the guys that we’ve got.”
Should Hardman not return from injured reserve, it could be the end of his career in Kansas City. He’s scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent in March.
While Reid classified Hardman’s issue as a setback, it seems like they pulled him from practice out of an abundance of caution and that the issue might be minor in nature.
“He just had some pain,” Reid said. “It was like a tweak in the groin area. So we just backed him off. I don’t want to take steps back.”
We’ll see if Hardman’s able to return to practice and return to the 53-man roster next week ahead of the regular season finale with the Las Vegas Raiders.
