Arizona Cardinals WR Marvin Harrison Jr. was labeled as a fantasy football difference-maker the second the team picked him in April, but 60 minutes into his career, you wouldn’t know it.
Through one half of football, the Cardinals had been effective (17 points on four drives) against the Buffalo Bills, but Harrison had nearly as many targets (three) as yards (four). While this is disappointing, it’s no reason for panic.
Despite the Cardinals finishing with 28 points, Harrison did not see another target. He finished with a stat line of three targets, one reception, four years, and 1.4 fantasy points in PPR scoring.
After costing fantasy managers a top-20 pick in most places, that is far from the return that anyone was hoping for.
Marvin Harrison Jr. Quiet Early in NFL Debut
From a historical point of view, a learning curve is more common than not for these high-pedigree receivers. Over the past 20 seasons, the average top-10 WR pick has produced just 49 receiving yards in his NFL debut. That, of course, is casting a wide net, but I found it interesting that Ja’Marr Chase (2021) was the only player on that list to reach 75 receiving yards.
That’s an interesting trend to consider with this game against a defense that doesn’t give up big plays (league-low 17 completions of 25+ yards last season). Speaking of this matchup, I’m not here to argue that the Bills are great, but they were pretty good at slowing alpha WR1s a season ago.
.@MarvHarrisonJr's first NFL reception!!! 🙌 pic.twitter.com/DGZMGLhK9x
— Arizona Cardinals (@AZCardinals) September 8, 2024
If you segment production by those true top-target earners (I’m talking target-share monsters like Davante Adams, Tyreek Hill, and A.J. Brown), they largely underachieved against Buffalo. In 11 games against such players, the star receiver averaged just 48.3 receiving yards per game (under six yards per target).
Harrison is going to be just fine. Heck, we might see his raw talent shine through in the second half of this contest. If, at day’s end, the Harrison manager is uneasy, it’s your duty to pounce. This is an elite prospect in an offense that needs a consistent target earner. Through 30 minutes, Arizona’s two leading receivers were a pair of running backs — chalk this up as a weird half, and don’t lower your expectations in the least of Harrison.
The second half was more concerning because Greg Dortch ended up as the leading receiver with six receptions from eight targets. Trey McBride was second with five receptions from nine targets, and Conner was third with three receptions from four targets. There were then five players with either two or three targets.
The silver lining is that Harrison was at least fourth in targets and second only to Dortch at WR. It is tough to know how this will shape up, but talent usually wins through in these situations, and Harrison has plenty of that.