Looks like Marvin Harrison Jr.’s run in Arizona is coming to an end. ESPN’s Adam Schefter and NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport are reporting the Cardinals are finalizing a trade to send him out, and most signs are now pointing to Houston as the destination.
Arizona’s already told Harrison he won’t play Sunday against Detroit while the deal gets finished up. As of Saturday, the Colts weren’t part of the conversation, which narrows things down quite a bit.
This is a rough stretch for a guy who came in with sky-high expectations. Harrison went fourth overall in 2024 after a big career at Ohio State, and his rookie year backed that up, 885 yards, eight touchdowns, 62 catches. This season looks nothing like that.
Four games into Mike LaFleur’s first year as head coach, Harrison has five catches, 85 yards, one touchdown. That score came in last Sunday’s 36-24 loss to the Giants. He’s fifth on the team in targets right now, barely ahead of backup running back Tyler Allgeier. Tough stats to explain for someone picked that high.
When reporters asked him this week about his touchdown celebration against the Giants, he kept it short. “No message,” he said, and added he hadn’t really been following all the trade talk around him.
The rumors built up slowly before hitting this point. Tom Pelissero reported Arizona had gotten “several calls” on Harrison, and that the team wanted a second-round pick, maybe more, in return. Before that, ESPN’s Josh Weinfuss and Stephen Holder said the Cardinals weren’t actively shopping him but weren’t closing the door either, with the Colts among teams doing their homework on him.
Pelissero also said GM Monti Ossenfort wasn’t exactly eager to part ways, given how much draft capital Arizona put into Harrison. But with $6.3 million guaranteed left on his deal, plus a 2028 team option that seemed increasingly unlikely to get picked up, the risk of losing him for nothing eventually probably pushed Arizona toward doing something now instead of waiting.
Harrison hired agents last month too, Todd France and Tory Dandy from Athletes First, after representing himself up to that point. Timing lines up right after a slow start to the season, which suggests he wanted people in his corner as trade talk started picking up, even though he’s not actually eligible for a new deal until this season wraps.
If this does end up being the Texans, Harrison reunites with C.J. Stroud, his old college quarterback at Ohio State. According to NBC Sports, the two sides have been negotiating over draft compensation, a 2028 second-rounder versus a 2027 second-rounder, so there’s still some back and forth over exactly what Arizona gets in return.
Worth mentioning, there was a family angle to another team briefly in the mix too. Harrison’s dad, Marvin Harrison Sr., is a Hall of Famer who holds a bunch of Colts receiving records, which got people talking about a possible Indianapolis reunion. That seems to be off the table now, based on reporting out of Indy.
Even with Harrison clearly struggling to find a role, the coaching staff hasn’t thrown him under the bus publicly. LaFleur said after the Giants loss that he still believes in him. GM Ossenfort said something similar more recently too, telling Arizona Sports that Harrison’s “a big part of what we’re doing,” brushing off the rumors at the time.
Those comments read a lot differently now with a trade reportedly close to done.
Sunday’s the next thing to watch, Harrison sitting out while Arizona hosts Detroit, officially out of the lineup as the trade paperwork gets finalized. Beyond that, the NFL trade deadline is the Tuesday after Week 9, so there’s a real window here for everything to get wrapped up.
For Harrison, landing in Houston means a fresh start with a quarterback he already knows well, which could be exactly the reset a talented but struggling young receiver needs. For Arizona, it’s an early and somewhat surprising sign that their top-five pick from last year just didn’t fit what the new coaching staff wanted to build.
