As the years have gone on, Ottawa REDBLACKS receiver Justin Hardy has only become more impactful.<\/p>\n
Following five years with the Atlanta Falcons, and a preseason stint with the Chicago Bears, Hardy inked a deal with the REDBLACKS, seeing action in seven games in 2022, though he was confined to the bench for much of his first season north of the border.<\/p>\n
In 2023, he broke out, and in 2024, he solidified himself among the best receivers in the league, leading the CFL in receptions with 97, and finishing second in receiving yards with 1,343. The Washington, DC native also hit paydirt five times, the most since 2014 at East Carolina University.<\/p>\n
With Hardy set to become a free agent on February 13th at noon, the longer the 33-year-old remained unsigned, the more the rumours picked up. However, it has been a common occurrence for him to take a little while, and you need to look back no further than last offseason, when he wasn\u2019t signed until February 4th.<\/p>\n
With low stress levels all around, Hardy agreed to a new deal to stay in the nation\u2019s capital in late January, adding his name to the many that have re-upped with the REDBLACKS.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very excited,\u201d he said of all the faces returning. \u201cLast year was a great stepping stone, it gives us something to build on and we just want to carry it over in a positive light.\u201d<\/p>\n
The prospect of reaching free agency was never something that really interested Hardy, he says. All along, he wanted to be a REDBLACK and help bring the Grey Cup back to Ottawa for the first time since 2016.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to win here,\u201d Hardy said of the only home he\u2019s ever known in the CFL. \u201cGetting back here was important to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course, General Manager Shawn Burke has been busy re-signing players, but other news around the club has sparked plenty of excitement, whether it\u2019s the coaching hires of William Fields and Rick Campbell or the early signing of Will Stanback, one of the top running backs in terms of yardage in 2024.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s good to see,\u201d Hardy said. \u201cWe\u2019re definitely taking the right steps to win football games. It\u2019s good to see us taking those shots.\u201d<\/p>\n
Individually, Hardy\u2019s game doesn\u2019t rely on any single freakish trait, but rather consistency in all aspects. You don\u2019t expect to see him outrun someone deep down the field, and you likely won\u2019t see him leap over the top of defenders to make some insane catch \u2014 though he did do both at different points in 2024 \u2014 but Hardy is one of the most versatile receivers in the league.<\/p>\n
What he always brings to the table is a security blanket for his quarterback. They can have faith that number two will get open, and when the ball is thrown his way, he\u2019ll make the catch and turn upfield for positive yards. Consistently reliable, available and secure; a quarterback\u2019s dream.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like if I come in, day in, day out and do what I\u2019m supposed to do, everything is taking care of itself,\u201d Hardy said. \u201cThat\u2019s how I approach the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
As good as he\u2019s been in his REDBLACKS tenure, Hardy hasn\u2019t reached his desired results of winning a Grey Cup yet. Still working with the same determination for improvement he was as a 24-year-old with the Falcons, it\u2019s possible that you haven\u2019t seen the American\u2019s best form.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hang my hat on getting 1 percent better every day,\u201d Hardy said. \u201cfeel like I\u2019m in great shape and I can be the most consistent [version of myself] we have seen. I feel like I can do it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the years have gone on, Ottawa REDBLACKS receiver Justin Hardy has only become more impactful. Following five…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135549,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-135548","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cfl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-canadian-football-league","11":"tag-canadianfootballleague","12":"tag-cfl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}