Cardinals draft Marvin Harrison Jr.: Draft profile, Fantasy Football & Dynasty outlook, scouting report, more

The Arizona Cardinals selected wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. with the No. 4 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. Here's what you need to know about his Fantasy stock in both season-long and Dynasty formats.

Harrison's Fantasy fit with the Cardinals

You're looking at the Cardinals' go-to No. 1 option for the foreseeable future. He'll pair nicely with Kyler Murray, who has a history of feeding his top targets and has always seemed partial to bigger receivers in the red zone. The path to Harrison becoming an annual top 12 Fantasy receiver is pretty clear in Arizona. He'll be among the most trendy picks in 2024 seasonal leagues as a third-rounder with the idea being he'll contend for 10 targets per game.

Dynasty Outlook

The bedrock of a long-time contending Fantasy team includes having a No. 1 Fantasy receiver who consistently performs at a high level. Harrison carries that expectation with him after consecutive seasons prolifically leading Ohio State's receiving game with two different quarterbacks. He's arguably the most talented receiver to enter the NFL since Ja'Marr Chase and will be a popular choice as the 1.01 in rookie-only drafts in one-QB leagues and is potentially the 1.01 in SuperFlex/two-QB as well.

Marvin Harrison: What to know

Just as his father was preparing for what would become the best season of his career, Marvin Darnell Harrison Jr. was born in Philadelphia. Along with his mother Dawne, a fitness instructor and hospital worker, the two didn't hesitate to get Junior ready to play football at a young age, both of them teaching him while also instilling a strong worth ethic while also making sure he did well in school.

The results were evident as soon as his freshman year at La Salle College High School when he caught five touchdowns as a freshman. But he jumped at the chance to transfer to St. Joseph's Prep -- where his father went to high school -- so he could play with quality quarterback prospect Kyle McCord. The two stayed connected through high school and won the PIAA 6A State Championship three straight years. Combined they lost two games. Not surprisingly, Harrison was a four-star prospect by 247Sports and followed McCord to Ohio State, where by 2023, McCord was throwing to Harrison.

In 2023, Harrison won the Biletnikoff Award for best wide receiver in the nation, The Big Ten Graham-George Award for Offensive Player of the Year, The Big Ten Richter-Howard Award for Best Receiver of the Year, was a unanimous first-team All American, was a member of the Academic All-Big Ten Team and was a finalist for the Heisman Trophy, the first receiver since DeVonta Smith in 2020 to be nominated.

Harrison also has a younger brother, Jett Harrison, who will graduate from high school in 2028.

Age as of Week 1: 22 | Height: 6-foot-3 | Weight: 209 | Hand: 9 1/2 | Arm: 31 7/8 | Wingspan: 77 1/4

Comparable body-type to: A.J. Green

We're breaking down everything you need to know about Harrison from a Fantasy manager perspective, including a scouting report, key stats and an NFL comparison.

Scouting report

Strengths

• Perfect build for a receiver -- tall with long arms, a wide chest and thick thighs. Not a lightweight at all. His strength comes out both when he stiff-arms defenders and when he blocks for teammates. Hands aren't the biggest but they're plenty big.
• Lined up everywhere at Ohio State but predominantly manned the outside spots (65 routes from the slot in 2023, 51 in 2022). Figures to be effective no matter where he lines up, but anything where he's just off the line of scrimmage or in motion pre-snap would be the best.
• Harrison mastered every route imaginable. In 2023 alone he ran eight different routes at least 20 times each. This kind of route diversity makes him harder to cover. He was incredibly effective on crossing routes, particularly in the red zone. His most run-route, predictably, was the go route.
• Had a bunch of polished moves -- hesitations, jab-steps, stutter-steps and head-fakes -- to get defensive backs flat-footed not only off the snap, but also at any point in his routes. His savvy footwork was his primary way of getting open.
• Sudden in his movement. Excellent short-area quickness both off the snap and in his routes helped him create space.
• Fluid, smooth runner with the capability to cut on a dime.
• Nuanced, well-practiced footwork overall. He turned back to face his quarterback in three steps, sometimes less.
• Ran at varying tempo to keep defenders guessing and stay in sync with his quarterback, then ran at full speed after the catch.

• Erupted versus zone coverage, consistently knowing where to best leverage himself against nearby defenders for maximum gain.
• Outstanding body control in all aspects of his game but it really shined when adjusting at the catch point. He did all he could every time to make a catch and configure his body to keep his feet in-bounds.
  
• Open even when he wasn't open thanks to his excellent vertical jumping and timing on tall throws in contested-catch situations. He can leap with the best of them and should be able to win this way on Sundays.

• Made some immaculate catches. Was fluent at bringing in over-the-shoulder bucket throws and dominated on back-shoulder fades.
• Had awesome quarterback play in 2022 (C.J. Stroud) but successfully adjusted to off-target throws from his quarterback in 2023. This lends hope that Harrison can be productive even if his quarterback isn't great.
• Already a very good, very willing blocker to help afford extra space for teammates.
• Seems like a humble young man who expresses himself naturally in interviews -- already something he's better than his dad at.

Concerns

• Fast, but not in the same range as guys like Tyreek Hill or Ja'Marr Chase. Harrison didn't consistently beat quality college cornerbacks in foot races and might not be able to do so against good NFL corners.
• Harrison didn't break a lot of tackles nor did he avoid a lot of tackles (7.5% rate in 2023 ranked 43rd among 44 FBS receivers with at least 100 targets). Harrison never had a catch with more than 16 yards after first contact in his past two seasons per TRU Media. It'll be interesting to see how Harrison goes about getting better at this without putting on too much weight.
• Not really that much of a concern considering the volume of targets he had (114 in 12 games) but Harrison did have six drops.
• Minor ankle injury concerns. Harrison got his right ankle rolled up on against Notre Dame last year and needed help getting off the field before coming back in. Days later he told the media that the ankle injury was worse than the one he suffered in 2022, but he previously claimed that the 2022 ankle injury was something he dealt with that whole season. Harrison was also knocked from the College Football Playoff semi-final against Georgia after an unnecessarily dangerous hit to the head. It's fair to ask if we didn't see his absolute best play because of the ankle injuries suffered in each of the past two seasons.

Stats breakdown

Advanced stats to know

• Amongst the "big three" at receiver (Harrison, Malik Nabers, Rome Odunze), Harrison had the highest receiving average (18.1). He also was lowest among them in overall catch rate (58.8%, but that can be pinned on his quarterback being off-target), explosive catch rate (26.3%, which was still fourth-best in the nation) and avoided tackle rate (7.5%).  
• In the red zone, Harrison caught 11 of 23 targets (47.8% catch rate) for 10 of his 14 touchdowns. That catch rate looks ugly but it actually led the "big three," and the NFL average catch rate among qualifying WRs in 2023 was 54.4%. Harrison led the nation in red-zone touchdowns.
• It wasn't as rosy inside the 10-yard line: 11 targets, four touchdowns on four catches. The 36.4% catch rate was worse than both Nabers and Odunze's (50%). And it wasn't better in 2022 with Stroud -- the exact same numbers including the exact same catch rate.
• On throws under 10 Air Yards: Caught 37 of 47 targets (78.7%) for 377 yards and six touchdowns with a pretty outrageous 14.9% explosive catch rate and 6.9 Yards After Catch per reception. He was in the same area as Nabers and Odunze in these same stats. Across the board, these numbers were better than how he did in 2022.
• On throws between 10 and 14 Air Yards: Caught 10 of 25 targets (40%) for 140 yards and one score with a 16% explosive catch rate and a measly 2.7 Yards After Catch per reception. Aside from the touchdown, all of these metrics were considerably worse than those of Nabers and Odunze. However, in 2022 he caught 66.7% of these kinds of throws (14 of 21) for 179 yards and a score, but with even worse explosive catch (14.3%) and YAC/reception (1.4) rates.
• On throws of 15-plus Air Yards: Caught 20 of 42 targets (47.6%) for 694 yards (34.7 yards per catch) and seven touchdowns with a 7.2 YAC/reception average. Again, Nabers and Odunze had better catch rates and more touchdowns but didn't have as good of a receiving average nor YAC/reception average. Harrison reeled in 27 of 50 such throws (54%) in 2022 for 27.4 yards per catch and 11 touchdowns, all from C.J. Stroud.
• On throws of 20-plus Air Yards: Caught 15 of 24 targets (62.5%) for 598 yards (39.9 yards per catch) and five touchdowns with an 8.6 YAC/reception average and zero drops. Harrison had better receiving averages than Nabers and Odunze, especially after the catch. He was about as dominant in 2022 (51.7% catch rate, 32.9 yards per catch, seven touchdowns with 4.8 YAC/reception).
• Earned his yardage: Only six of his catches and 57 yards came on screens or flares.

NFL Comparison

Comparing him to his dad is kind of tacky, so let's ignore Senior and choose someone else. With speed being the only difference, Harrison's game is right on point with that of A.J. Green's. Green was faster, but both were silky smooth movers with incredible nuance and route-running, capable of getting open with precise footwork. It's not a stretch to say Harrison could have a similar career to that of Green, but you shouldn't expect Harrison to play at the same top speed as Green did.