Cemented in April of 2024, the pedigree of Marvin Harrison Jr. is forever.
The Cardinals wide receiver knows that, and he knows he will carry that through his NFL career.
"I understand who I am and what I was expected to do when I got drafted here and all the expectations put on me," Harrison said after practice Wednesday afternoon. "People want certain production and when that is not happening, everyone is going to ask questions or try to figure out why."
That's been the constant hum in the background of Harrison's whole two-plus professional years, what he is or isn't doing on the field. The noise spiked after he was held without a reception Sunday against the Seahawks, a week after he had one catch against the Chargers in the opener.
The fourth overall pick in 2024 is trying to get where he needs to be. The rest of the Cardinals are working as best they can to help it along.
"Nobody has lost confidence in Marv," quarterback Jacoby Brissett said. "The hard part as a young player is the noise from the outside telling you what they expect from you and things of that nature. Does Marv want the ball? Yes. Do we understand that he wants the ball? Yes. Is it only Week 2? Yes. It's a lot of things that you try and emphasize that at some point the tide will change. When? We don't know yet, but hopefully soon.
"I told him, 'The frustration you have, I have the same way. I don't want you to go out in the game with zero catches. That's not it. That's not fair to you.' And I take responsibility for that as a quarterback."
It's not hard to find social media clips analyzing Harrison's plays and/or effort on the field or plays when he was "open" and Brissett didn't look his way.
In coach Mike LaFleur's offense, Harrison has been used as a deep receiver, his 17 "go" routes in two games tied for sixth-most in the league. Harrison said he's fine with that – "Everybody likes explosives, right? So you want to get those explosives" – and LaFleur noted this week the second play of the game should have been a deep shot to Harrison until the play broke down because of Seattle pressure.
There were a couple of other specific plays that LaFleur said were intended for Harrison until something in the play went awry. Harrison emphasized the point, noting a lot on every pass play needs to be executed for any particular player can get the ball.
But not every player is Marvin Harrison Jr., the guy almost everyone considered the best wide receiver the year he came out in the draft.
"I'm not going to sit here and act like I don't know the narrative going on," LaFleur said. "I mean, this is the league and naturally stuff gets across my desk but in between those walls, Marv is Marv. He's attacking it every single day like he always does and just like his teammates."
With some of the Cardinals already showered and leaving the locker room late Wednesday afternoon post-practice, Harrison and Michael Wilson walked slowly toward the locker room after each getting in a bunch of reps from the JUGS gun. Harrison did the same before practice as well.
"I can't imagine every time you open up social media and it's negative talk," Wilson said. "There is no one who is a bigger Marvin fan than myself. We all like to overreact over such a small sample size of games.
"The narratives and headlines change so much week-to-week, you shouldn't put your value in that as a person and a player."
Harrison was asked about his effort level on the field; he noted that on run plays, if his man doesn't make the tackle, he has done his job.
Brissett understands the concept of making sure Harrison gets the ball more, but "the flow of the game is the flow of the game." The quarterback doesn't want to force anything in the name of feeding one guy (and as a QB, it is a constant refrain; Kurt Warner once said similar things about Larry Fitzgerald.)
But Brissett knows that Harrison has had a rough start to the season, and he wants to be there for Harrison as a teammate.
"It's easy to say, 'Oh, it's a long season' to other people, but to Marv it doesn't feel like it's a long season," Brissett said.
"The foundation that you're laying for yourself is not changing based on the external gratification or whatever the noise is from the outside. That's what you want to see. As a teammate and as a quarterback, you still have to be there for him because, (expletive), what if this week goes the same way? Am I just going to not be there? It's a new week and that's the benefit of it being so early in the season."
Harrison's confidence hasn't wavered, he said, because it is born from his process and not his production. He will believe in himself whether he has zero catches or goes off for 10.
That doesn't mean he doesn't want to make a bigger impact. And he knows that's what everyone else is looking for too.
"It's the social media era," Harrison said. "You see everything. I'm not going to sit here and say I don't see nothing. You get told to block out the noise and not pay attention to it. That's part of it. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions. I just going to continue to worry about my team, my process."
