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Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. (18) celebrates after scoring a touchdown against Seattle Seahawks cornerback Devon Witherspoon (21) in the fourth quarter at State Farm Stadium. Joe Camporeale-Imagn Images

Cardinals need more from WR Marvin Harrison Jr. this season

By Adam Gretz | Last updated Sep 26, 2025 12:16 AM ET

When the Arizona Cardinals picked wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. with the No. 4 pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, they were expecting him to be the go-to player in their passing game and give quarterback Kyler Murray a bona fide No. 1 wide receiver. So far it has not exactly worked out that way.

Cardinals need more from their top wide receiver

Harrison Jr. had a very mixed bag rookie season that flashed the potential for greatness, while also showing some inconsistency. The overall numbers were fine, even if not eye-opening. He caught 62 passes for 885 yards and eight touchdowns, which is perfectly fine for a rookie, especially if it preceded a bigger breakout in Year 2.

Well, after Thursday's 23-20 loss to the Seattle Seahawks the Cardinals are now 2-2 and still not seeing the expected return from Harrison Jr. in the passing game. If anything, he has shown more regression than progression.

Thursday was an especially frustrating game. While he did haul in a big touchdown in the fourth quarter as part of the Cardinals' 14-point comeback to tie the game, the overall performance left a lot to be desired. He caught just six of the 10 passes thrown his direction for a pedestrian 66 yards, and was a big part of some bad miscommunications and two turnovers.

"I think you see a guy who's uberly talented just not playing with confidence. It's like his mind is paralyzing his ability to be the receiver he can be."

Kirk Herbstreit on Marvin Harrison Jr. ️ #NFL pic.twitter.com/f2RrWMx6z2
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) September 26, 2025

Including Thursday's game, he has caught just 16 passes for 208 yards in four games. That projects out to only 68 receptions for 867 yards over a full 17-game season.

That's not good enough for a hopeful No. 1 wide receiver. It's not good enough for what you expect to see from a top-five pick that is supposed to be a franchise-changing player and a potential superstar.

Quarterback Kyler Murray needs to share in at least some of the blame for Harrison Jr.'s early struggles, but some of these issues are just simply plays that Harrison Jr. has to make. He needs to use his size, strength and athleticism more to his advantage and win some of those contested catches. He can't have passes in traffic bounce off of his hands and go right to a defender. There can not be those miscommunications.

Arizona has very little margin for error in its games and have now lost consecutive contests on walk-off field goals. There is a very thin line between winning and losing in the NFL every week. As long as its top wide receiver is this much of a non-factor, it's not going to get on the correct side of that line anytime soon. The Cardinals need more from him moving forward.

Adam Gretz

Adam Gretz is a freelance writer based in Pittsburgh. He covers the NHL, NFL, MLB and NBA. Baseball is his favorite sport -- he is nearly halfway through his goal of seeing a game in every MLB ballpark. Catch him on Twitter @AGretz

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