Marvin Harrison Jr. Houston Texans Fantasy Football Expectations

For fantasy football, Harrison failed to surpass 11.7 PPG in any single season. Arizona has finally had enough of waiting for Harrison to break out and decided to trade him away to the Houston Texans.

At this point, it creates the question. Even with the trade, what went wrong with Harrison, and is he even worth having on your fantasy football team? 

The Bull Case for Marvin Harrison Jr: Fantasy Football

Sometimes a change of scenery can be exactly what a player needs, and it’s tough to quantify that. Especially for a player who had massive expectations placed upon him and, up to this point, has failed to meet them.

On top of that, if we go back to the rookie year production, we see that Harrison had a really solid season with 62 catches for 885 yards and 8 touchdowns, which came out to 11.6 PPG. If Harrison is able to build on those numbers, he can be productive for fantasy football even if it’s not at an elite level like many hoped.

Then you have the quarterback upgrade, as with the way C. J. Stroud has been playing this season, Harrison will likely have the best quarterback play of his NFL career. Not to mention the two played together at Ohio State.

I would argue the most encouraging reason to still be in on Harrison is that Houston gave up a fairly strong return in order to get him. Then you have to account for a key reason why the Texans did this: opportunity right now, which matters a ton for fantasy football.

After losing Jayden Higgins for the year early on, Harrison should instantly become the number two on this team next to Nico Collins. In Arizona, you had Michael Wilson and Trey McBride, which put Harrison as the third target with worse quarterback play. 

The Bear Case for Marvin Harrison Jr

Now, for the bear case, it’s fairly strong as well, but it doesn’t need as many examples. The number one thing is the lack of proven production over 33 NFL games.

The other is the seemingly lack of separation ability, and you can even see that at times in the Ohio State clip above. As I’ve heard others note as well, one big problem with Harrison is the fact that he’s put on weight in the NFL.