Handpicked as this organization’s next generation receiver to follow in the footsteps of Hall of Famer Larry Fitzgerald, Marvin Harrison Jr. is at a crossroads with the Arizona Cardinals.
Through three games this season, Harrison has just four catches on nine targets. The former No. 4 overall pick is a non-factor on offense, ranking sixth on the team in catches, even behind running back Tyler Allgeier (eight).
Arizona has something to give. Former NFL wide receiver TJ Houshmandzadeh believes Harrison should seek greener pastures by seeking a trade.
“I believe that’s the best thing for him, it’s just a fresh start somewhere else,” Houshmandzadeh told me. “I don’t believe the Cardinals see him as the generational player he was when they drafted him. If they did, he would be involved in the offense.
“When the coach wants to put you in the attack, it’s very clear. You get your targets, you get the opportunity. And when he doesn’t get that, they don’t appreciate it. So for me, you just have to move on.”
Harrison is the fifth most targeted player for Arizona. Through three games, he has 73 yards on those four catches. Trey McBride leads the Cardinals in receptions (26), followed by Michael Wilson (18), Kendrick Bourne (12), rookie running back Jeremiah Love (10) and then Allgeier.
Marvin Harrison Jr. had one catch in Week 1 against the Chargers and three in Week 3 against the 49ers. (Keith Birmingham/MediaNews Group/Pasadena Star-News via Getty Images)
During the offseason, the Cardinals extended McBride ($76 million over four years) and Wilson ($75 million over three years), whose 2025 breakout was made possible in part because Harrison played just 12 games due to injury. Those are two key players under contract for the foreseeable future, along with Love who is in the first year of a lucrative rookie deal.
Harrison is in the third year of a four-year, $35.4 million entry-level deal that pays him $4 million this season. His struggles have been so pronounced that an ESPN report surfaced recently stating that executives around the league are questioning whether Arizona would consider trading the enigmatic receiver before the Nov. 10 trade deadline.
First-year Cardinals coach Mike LaFleur wasn’t around when Harrison was drafted and therefore isn’t committed to working with him regularly on offense.
“It’s like, just give him some easy finishes to get going,” LaFleur told reporters. “And that’s good. But you also have Trey McBride, who’s one of the best guys in the world. And there’s only about 60 to 65 plays in a game. And you’ve got to run the ball. And you’ve got Kendrick who works really well underneath, too. So everybody has their role right there.”
Harrison apparently isn’t handling the lack of targets well. Fans of the film have been posting videos of Harrison on social media running down the street and constantly not giving maximum effort.
He’s saying the right things publicly, though, and three of his four catches came in the Cardinals’ Week 3 loss to the San Francisco 49ers.
“I feel like the only thing you can do is make the most of the opportunities you’re given,” Harrison told reporters this week. “It’s all-round. It’s never up to one player to win. Obviously, I want to keep building on what I did last week.”
Harrison had a solid but unspectacular rookie season, finishing with 62 receptions for 885 yards and eight touchdowns on 116 targets. He followed that with 41 receptions for 608 yards and four scores in a year cut short 12 games by a combination of appendicitis, a concussion and foot and heel injuries.
Simply put, those numbers don’t scream that he’s the No. 1 receiver. 1.
For his NFL career, Harrison has 107 receptions for 1,566 yards and 12 touchdowns. Harrison has 10 points during that time. First-round pick in his 2024 class, Brian Thomas Jr. has 14, and Malik Nabers has 13.
“He’s just an average or slightly above-average WR,” a league source told me. “If he was drafted 104th instead of No. 4, he’d be fine. You have to look at it that way.”
The league source went on to say that Harrison’s production would not change at another stop.
“He had a lot of chances with everybody wanting him to be the man,” the league source told me. “So if it’s not a matter of maturity or motivation or training, why would it work better somewhere else? It’s going to be similar.”
Marvin Harrison Jr. was held without a hitch in week two, when the Cardinals lost 31-7 to the defending champion Seattle Seahawks. (Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
Houshmandzadeh told me Harrison not living up to expectations in Arizona isn’t just down to the player.
“When he arrived in Arizona, the team was gobsmacked,” Houshmandzadeh said. “Arizona has been terrible since he got there. You look at the quarterback play. You can say what you want about Kyler (Murray), but he got released. He barely completed 50% of his passes last week, and so you’re on a team that’s not very good and you’re playing a quarterback that has played well at times, but not consistently in a losing situation.”
Houshmandzadeh believes Harrison can rewrite his history in a new home and sees the Las Vegas Raiders, Buffalo Bills, Indianapolis Colts and Houston Texans as teams that could use Harrison’s services.
“Honestly, you could send him to Houston and bring him back with CJ (Stroud),” Houshmandzadeh told me. “They haven’t been good offensively. Nico Collins is injured, so that wouldn’t be a bad thing. He just needs targets.
“I tell people all the time, you’ve got to look at your role and why it didn’t work. And address your flaws in it and clean it up. When a new coach comes in, you’ve got to put your best foot forward. You’ve got to be full speed ahead in everything you do. And if he’s running the route in games, I’m sure he’s running the route in practice. And I’m sure something has changed. The coach says, ‘Okay, I got you.’ And they they just don’t click.”
Houshmandzadeh said the first step toward transformation for Harrison is regaining his confidence by focusing on his work.
“Every game until he gets traded, he has to do a lot and create separation,” Houshmandzadeh told me. “Because he might not get the ball. Other teams are going to see that, yeah. But what it’s going to do for him is let him know that he’s still that (dude). When you’re not getting the ball and you’re not having success, I don’t care who you are, there’s a little bit of self-doubt. Like, ‘Holy shit, am I as good as I thought I was?’
“People will say, ‘I haven’t lost my confidence.’ But that’s a lie. He can get it back without getting the ball by creating separation. He should make it his mission to embarrass every DB guarding that man-to-man so he can look at it on tape and say, ‘OK, I’m still Him.’
Houshmandzadeh believes that if given another opportunity elsewhere, Harrison will prove he is still talented enough to produce in this league.
“I just remember this well when he was at Ohio State: Marvin Harrison Jr. is the best receiver in football,” Houshmandzadeh told me. “And I was asking people like, ‘Yeah, we know that — in college. And they were like, not like in the NFL, too. And I said, ‘Man, get the f— out of here. But there were people who thought that.
“So if they thought so much of him at the time, the only thing that could have changed, and probably has, is his mindset and his confidence. But once you get somewhere and start doing well, it comes right back. So for him, he needs a fresh start so he can get back to that level of confidence and belief where you feel like nobody can cover him.”
