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Marvin Harrison Jr.'s second season was expected to be of the breakout variety and to possibly end in the playoffs.
Instead, the Arizona Cardinals have wildly underwhelmed in the third year of the Jonathan Gannon era, and Harrison is finishing his sophomore campaign well short of 1,000 receiving yards and on injured reserve.
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The Cardinals placed Harrison on IR Friday, although Gannon revealed Wednesday that the Ohio State product wouldn't play in Sunday's regular-season finale against the Los Angeles Rams.
Harrison is dealing with a heel injury on leg and a foot issue on the other. Those are the latest setbacks the wideout's faced in an adversity-worn season.
He'll clock out with 41 catches on 73 targets, 608 receiving yards and 4 touchdown grabs in 12 games.
"I thought he did some good things" Gannon said of Harrison's performance in 2025, per AZCardinals.com. "We moved him around the formation. He scored points for us. He got open, caught it.
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"I don't think he's hit his ceiling, and I look forward to the future with that."
The Cardinals selected Harrison with the No. 4 overall pick in the 2024 draft. The idea was that he'd become Kyler Murray's new WR1, and a game-changing one at that.
But Murray and Harrison struggled to develop on-field chemistry in Harrison's rookie season. A year removed from winning the Biletnikoff Award at Ohio State, Harrison accounted for just 885 receiving yards in his first 17 games with the Cardinals.
Although he brought in eight touchdown receptions, his involvement in the offense ebbed and flowed in the 2024 season. In fact, Harrison had five games with two or fewer catches. Sometimes he didn't come back to the ball. Other times, he didn't highpoint it. And sometimes he simply wasn't made a focal point.
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Some of the same issues resurfaced this fall.
Questions about offensive coordinator Drew Petzing's scheme, and whether it made the most of Harrison's skill set, continued. So did others about Harrison's usage in general. Even his father, a Pro Football Hall of Fame receiver, aired out his frustration about Arizona's offense.
He didn't help himself with a drop in three straight games from Weeks 2-4, most notably one that turned into a Seattle Seahawks interception during Arizona's early-season "Thursday Night Football" defeat.
Harrison bounced back from that gaffe with a redemptive, contested touchdown catch later in that game. Plus, he showed glimpses of putting it all together at other points of this season, like when he made a career-high seven grabs for 96 yards and a score in a "Monday Night Football" victory over the Dallas Cowboys with Jacoby Brissett under center, but injuries prevented any potential second-year leap.
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He suffered a concussion against the Indianapolis Colts in Week 6. Then he was sidelined in Week 11 and Week 12 after having appendix surgery.
Harrison returned in Week 13 and mounted six receptions in a loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, except he injured his heel along the way.
That cost him a couple more games. Although he came back in Week 16 against the Atlanta Falcons, his snap count and impact were diminished. Last week against the Cincinnati Bengals, he picked up a foot injury, and now the Cardinals have shut him down for the season.
Arizona has been ravaged by injury and has tumbled to a 3-13 record after a 2-0 start.
Harrison was the centerpiece of a 2024 draft class the Cardinals are still hoping comes to fruition.
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