Rich Hriber and Matt Harmon of Sharp Football Analysis believe it is, and we can discuss their reasons why
Rich Hriber and Matt Harmon of “Sharp Football Analysis” make some well-supported points about what they perceive to be an awkward pairing of WR Marvin Harrison Jr. with QB Kyler Murray.
Here, have a good look (the gist is in first 10-11 minutes of the video):
Key Points:
- Matt Harmon lauds MHJ’s route running and calls him a “craftsman” —- and when he charted MHJ’s routes in 2024, he noticed that, when MHJ was open, too often he was not thrown the ball.
- In 2024, Harmon opined, MHJ was being used like a “sacrificial X WR.”
- MHJ’s best route is the “dig route” —- where he gets consistently open —- but, too often, “Kyler Murray can’t see him.”
- MHJ had only 4 ‘in-space” receptions in 2024 —- which was bottom five in the NFL —- and put MHJ historically in a “sacrificial X WR” category with Mike Williams, D.J. Chark and Kenny Golladay.
- “Back shoulder throws are not really a strength of MHJ’s game.”
- In the game versus the Dolphins, during the prep week, Kyler asked MHJ what routes he would prefer to run that week and it worked because Marv was getting the ball more over the middle —- “yet, they rarely did it quite like that again for the rest of the year.”
- “Against the popular 2 high safety coverages in the NFL today, “you don’t beat that defense by dinks and dunks, you beat it by passing over the linebackers and deep middle.”
Reception Perception:
Some folks like since61, SunDevil99, Kurt Warner and I have been trying to challenge the perception amongst fans that “the Cardinals’ WRs aren’t getting open.”
With that in mind, I went ahead and purchased a year’s subscription to Matt Harmon’s website: receptionpercetion.com
Here are Matt’s charts on 2024 Marvin Harrison Jr.:
Marvin Harrison Jr. 2024 Player Profile | Reception Perception
Success Rate by Route (getting open) —- Rate Percentages (of his 62 receptions)
- Flat Pass: —- 80% success —- 1.9%
- Comeback: —- 87.5% —- 3.0%
- Out Pass: —- 74.1% —- 10.0%
- Corner Pass: —- 80% —- 5.6%
- 9 Deep Pass: 51.2% —- 15.5%
- Post Pass: —- 84.2% —- 7.1%
- Dig Pass: —- 87.5% —- 24.1%
- Curl Pass: —- 75.6% —- 15.4%
- Slant Pass: —- 81.6% —- 14.3%
- Screen Pass: —- 100% —- 0.4%
- Other —- 85.7% —- 2.6%
Overall, Marvin Harrison Jr. had a good rookie season. He displayed the strengths of his game as a route runner and even if it’s not the best use of him long-term, held up while playing the most difficult role you can thrust upon a wideout. What “went wrong” in his rookie season can’t be isolated to just one variable and every major party deserves some slice of the blame. In order for him to take the next step in the production department, the coaching staff needs to mix up his deployment, the quarterback play must be more consistent and for his own, Harrison has to improve both in tight coverage and working back to the quarterback.
Some of Harrison’s rookie season success rates are pretty close to Cowboys star receiver CeeDee Lamb’s results in his first season (72.5% vs. man, 78.5% vs. zone and 80% vs. press on a low number of routes). It’s not a perfect comparison but they’re a bit closer frame-wise than you think and you wouldn’t mistake either for a burner. Just like Harrison, Lamb could take every snap at X-receiver and be fine but the Cowboys have recognized that isn’t the way to maximize his game. Lamb was also a guy who needed to work on playing more physically at times to start his career.
Coverage Type —- % of Routes —- Success Rate —- Percentile
- Man —- 50.4% —- 73.1% —- 75th
- Zone —- 49.6% —- 81.1% —- 72nd
- Press —- 25.2% —- 76.1% —- 80th
- Double —- 10.5% —- 60.7%
These are good numbers for MHJ!
Note: one WR route that Matt Harmon did not specify on his chart was the “fade” route —- which I believe is one of Marv’s most difficult to defend. I am going to try to contact Matt and ask him about it.
Commentary:
Kudos to Matt Harmon for the hard work he did in charting every one of MHJ’s routes —- and for arriving at his questions about the potentially awkward “marriage” of MHJ with Kyler Murray.
In spite of the timing and syncing issues that Kyler and Marv had (missing on 54 passes), the 1st year of the marriage produced 62 catches for 885 yards, 14.3 yards per catch and 8 TDs. We should acknowledge this type of production, especially from a rookie NFL WR, is pretty dang good.
Marv has been dedicating the off-season to getting bigger, stronger and faster —- all of the while, he and Kyler have been working tenaciously to make their timing more efficient and precise.
Some of the blocked vision concerns that Kyler has are not going to be readily fixed —- however, Drew Petzing should be able to do a more consistent job of moving Kyler in and around the pocket.
Look, every player has a set of strengths and weaknesses. The job of the coaches is to put the players in a position to maximize their strengths and minimize their weaknesses.
The key to Marv’s year 2, in my opinion, is for Drew Petzing to use him much more often in the slot which can be created at times by strict alignments and the use of short and cross motions. A number of the throws that can be made to Marv in those-type of schemes should be routinely easy to complete.
Marv needs to embrace the role of becoming a big-target RAC WR. It’s going to take guts and a Fitz-esque determination. Like Matt Harmon pointed out, CeeDee Lamb’s ascent up the NFL WR ranks to All-Pro coincided with his willingness to play the slot.
The auspicious news is that Kyler Murray has always had a huge chemistry with CeeDee.
If Marv becomes Kyler’s version of CeeDee in Arizona, a year from now Rich Hriber and Matt Harmon won’t have to repeat the question of “will it work?”
So, let’s ask the question to you, “will the pairing of Marvin Harrison Jr. and Kyler Murray live up to the fans’ and pundits’ expectations?”