Harrison had a somewhat disappointing rookie year despite scoring eight touchdowns
Entering the 2024 NFL season, Marvin Harrison Jr. was widely expected to hit the ground running and become an immediate star. But things didn’t work out that way. Instead, Harrison caught just one pass for 4 yards in his first NFL game, had fewer than 40 yards in six out of 17 games and finished the season with 62 catches for 885 yards. He did rack up eight touchdown grabs, but he had just a 53.4% catch rate, per Pro-Football-Reference, and averaged only 7.3 yards per target.
In other words, Harrison was solid — and somewhat productive — but not spectacular. His quarterback, Kyler Murray, feels like there is more meat left on the bone for Harrison to be even better.
“For him to have eight touchdowns and feel like he didn’t even scratch the surface, that’s saying something,” Murray said, via Arizona Sports’ Cardinals Corner. “Obviously, me and him have to be better and we will be better. But I loved where he was mentally at the end of the season. Being more open, being more comfortable with the guys in the locker room, being more comfortable with me, being more comfortable just to speak his mind within the receiving room with (Israel Woolfork and Drew Terrell).”
There were clearly some growing pains for the Murray-Harrison connection during the season, as evidenced by the low catch rate. But Harrison also obviously came into the league with outsized expectations owed to both his prodigious college production and his pedigree as the son of Indianapolis Colts legend and Pro Football Hall of Famer Marvin Harrison, so the relative lack of star-level play was surprising.
“I understand him in the sense of he’s got this name and he wants to just come in and prove himself,” Murray said of the soon-to-be second-year wideout. “People say he’s not talkative. Well, they would have said I wasn’t talkative my rookie year, either, because all I wanted to do was come in and show guys I’m worth where they picked me and who I am. So, I understand that part of his personality. But as he gets more comfortable, he’s going to continue to grow. I truly believe that.”
Harrison will almost surely enter the 2025 season as one of Murray’s top two targets, along with tight end Trey McBride. He and Murray certainly need to get on the same page more often so that their connection be more efficient, and if what that takes is Harrison being more comfortable in his own skin, then it’s a good sign that Murray says that began to happen more toward the end of the season. But we’ll have to wait until they get back on the field to find out.
