Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Mecole Hardman is a nice weapon for Patrick Mahomes because of his blazing speed. However, Hardman wants to be known as more than just a deep threat, and he expressed his frustration with that perception of him just ahead of the Chiefs' Super Bowl loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Via ESPN's Adam Teicher:

“I can really run routes,” Hardman said a few days before the Chiefs lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. “That kind of makes me mad when people say, ‘Oh, he's just a deep ball threat.' I literally can run routes very well. People don't really see it because a lot of my routes are down the field. You've got Travis [Kelce] and Sammy [Watkins] and Tyreek [Hill] for all that other stuff. They can do everything across the board. I can really run routes really [well]. I get out of my breaks very well.

“A lot of people [think] I can't run routes. I'm like, ‘What?' People have the misunderstanding that I can't run routes. I'm very capable of running every route on the tree.”

As Teicher notes, Kansas City hasn't shown a ton of confidence in Hardman being a well-rounded receiver just yet. While the Chiefs youngster has shown flashes in his first two years after getting picked in the second round in 2019, he's still just a part-time receiver and a return man.

In his rookie season, Hardman caught 26 balls for 538 yards and six touchdowns, but he barely contributed offensively in the playoffs as the Chiefs won the Super Bowl. He upped his catch total to 41 in Year 2, but his yards total went to just 560 and he only caught four touchdown passes. In the playoffs, the 22-year-old caught eight passes for 66 yards and a touchdown, but he was mostly invisible in the Super Bowl loss to Tampa Bay and was the source of some frustration for Mahomes.

Hardman could find himself with a bigger role soon, though, as Sammy Watkins and Demarcus Robinson are unrestricted free agents. The Chiefs will have to decide if they're comfortable with Hardman being a full-time starter or if they still prefer him as more of a gadget type alongside studs Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce.