INDIANAPOLIS — Mecole Hardman may not yet have come down from the way the Super Bowl ended Feb. 11, with the ball in the former Georgia football wide receiver’s hands to give the Kansas City Chiefs another championship.

He made an appearance on the Jimmy Kimmel Show and took part in the NBA All-Star Celebrity Game with a shirt that said: “Mr. Walkoff," referring to his 3-yard touchdown catch from Patrick Mahomes. It gave the Chiefs a 25-22 overtime win over San Francisco.

Another NFL offseason is already here. That’s apparent with NFL general managers and many head coaches here this week for the NFL Scouting Combine.

That means free agency decisions are at hand for teams.

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Hardman will be a free agent. Will the now 25-year old from the small town of Bowman be back with a team he’s already won three Super Bowls with?

“We’ll get a chance to meet with him and his agent,” Chiefs general manager Brett Veach said Tuesday inside the Indiana Convention Center. “Love Mecole. If there’s an opportunity there that makes sense for him and us, I’m sure we wouldn’t be opposed to going down that road. Listen, when you have a guy that has played in this offense and understands all the verbiage, all the dialogue, all the play checks…We didn’t have a lot of ammunition to do much at the tradeline last year. That one kind of opened itself up. The price wasn’t much and all our coaches knew him. He knew us and it worked out.”

Things weren’t working out for Hardman with the New York Jets, the team he signed with last offseason.

So the Chiefs traded to re-acquire the player they drafted in the second round in 2019. The deal was a sixth-round 2025 pick for Hardman and a seventh-round 2025 pick.

“Everybody doesn’t fit into every situation,” Kansas City coach Andy Reid said Tuesday. “That’s just not how it works in this league. We’ve had Mecole. We kind of know how he fits into our scheme and he did a nice job with that. He came in and worked hard and was productive for us. He had a couple of hiccups early, but he worked through those. We knew he would and ended up having some great plays in the Super Bowl.”

Hardman had just 15 catches for 124 yards this past regular season with only one with the Jets. He had 5 catches for 62 yards with a touchdown in the playoffs.

He was asked on the NFL Network about where he may be in 2024.

“Right now you’re just hearing talking and see what’s going on with people, ideas,” Hardman said. “You probably get a better idea as the week goes on, but whenever the frenzy starts, you’ll know. We’ll see if they want me back. If not, it might be somewhere else.”

Hardman ruled out one destination.

“I won’t go back to the Jets,” he said.

No matter where he’s playing in 2024, Hardman will go down as a Chiefs legend whether he's a part of a chase for a three-peat or not.

“I’m thrilled for him for that last play,” Veach said. “What a turn of events for him, but I love Mecole and I’m sure we’ll be in contact”

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Chiefs GM Brett Veach on free agent Mecole Hardman from UGA football