The Buffalo Bills are releasing veteran wide receiver and return specialist Mecole Hardman Jr. as they trim the roster toward the NFL’s 53-player limit.
The team later confirmed Hardman among 13 players released on Aug. 29.
Hardman, 28, is a three-time Super Bowl champion with the Kansas City Chiefs and is best remembered for the overtime touchdown that won Super Bowl LVIII.
A former second-round pick out of Georgia in 2019, he spent most of his career in Kansas City before brief stops with the New York Jets and Green Bay Packers. Buffalo signed him to the practice squad in November 2025, then used him as a depth receiver and returner.
He was active for three regular-season games and one playoff game last year, including a touchdown catch in Buffalo’s Divisional Round loss to the Denver Broncos.
His path to the 2026 roster was always narrow. The Bills added D.J. Moore in a trade and drafted Skyler Bell, leaving Hardman as a likely sixth receiver behind Moore, Khalil Shakir, Keon Coleman, and Joshua Palmer. His strongest case was special teams.
Buffalo instead gave running back Ray Davis more work as a punt returner, even after Davis muffed a punt in the preseason finale. Hardman produced little as a receiver in the exhibition season — four catches for 20 yards and a touchdown, plus two rushes for 31 yards — and did not lock down a return role.
The cut is a roster-math decision more than a referendum on Hardman’s résumé. With the 53-man deadline set for 6 p.m. ET Sunday, Buffalo is using the spot elsewhere.
The same wave of moves included veteran punter Mitch Wishnowsky, as rookie Tommy Doman won that job. Hardman can still return on the practice squad, and he should draw interest as a veteran returner and gadget piece.
Kansas City, which has often circled back to familiar names when injuries hit, is an obvious possible landing spot.
For Bills fans, the move is familiar: Buffalo has cycled through return specialists and extra receivers while protecting spots for its core.
Hardman’s Buffalo chapter was short and uneven — a 61-yard kick return one week, a muffed punt and limited snaps the next — but it added a Super Bowl pedigree to a locker room chasing its own first title.
Whether he resurfaces in Orchard Park or elsewhere, the release marks the end of his bid to make the initial 53.
