TEMPE — Marvin Harrison Jr. and Kyler Murray showed flashes in their first season together of what the Arizona Cardinals’ offensive pairing can be down the road.
Now that the 2024 rookie is getting his first full offseason with his quarterback, he’s setting high standards for how they need to operate.
“Obviously, right now everything’s on air, so getting the timing down, being precise in everything that we do,” Harrison said Monday. “I feel like we should be able to go out there with our eyes closed and be able to complete 100% of our passes.”
Harrison’s rookie season wasn’t poor so much as it fell short of lofty expectations set by the receiver’s outstanding college career and status as the fourth overall pick. He finished the campaign with 885 yards and eight touchdowns across 62 catches.
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The connection with Murray, however, left something to be desired, as his catch percentage of 53.4 (62 catches out of 116 targets) ranked last among the seven first-round wide receivers in 2024.
Murray told the Cardinals Corner podcast in April he saw night-and-day growth in how the two communicated from the beginning to the end of the season, which gave him optimism for how it would work going forward.
“It’s been great, honestly. Obviously, there’s the on-the-field side, but there’s (the) off-the-field side that a lot of people don’t see,” Harrison said Monday. “He’s just a great guy to be around. And then he just definitely knows when to put the serious switch on and when it’s time to go to work.”
The work in building that connection translated to a different kind of field on Saturday when the two held down the middle infield together in Murray’s celebrity softball game for charity.
k1 and mhj make a mean middle infield pairing
building up and fortifying that connection this offseason pic.twitter.com/1eCfBcVfDr
— Damon Allred (@iamdamonallred) May 18, 2025
Harrison was back to training at the team facility as soon as the season ended, and living in the warm weather year-round enables him to do so, he added.
How else could Year 2 look different for Marvin Harrison Jr.?
Harrison appears to be heading into his second season much bigger than his 6-foot-4, 215-pound listing as a rookie.
“I feel the same, honestly,” Harrison said of whether he needs to feel out the new weight, noting there’s a health aspect to factor in. “You don’t want to put on too much weight and then your body may not be used to it … but I feel exactly the same as I did before.”
As of Monday, Harrison didn’t have a specific number for how much weight he’s added — or what he’d like to play at — and he doesn’t have to weigh in until training camp. That’s when he and the team will settle on a number they’d like him at and adjust as necessary.
The added mass happened naturally, he said. It was partially a product of not eating as much during his three seasons at Ohio State.
Marvin Harrison Jr.'s on muscle watch. ? pic.twitter.com/uGRVFl1TdL
— Arizona Sports (@AZSports) May 19, 2025
“Started eating a little bit more and having more free time, I guess,” Harrison said. “But I’ve been eating all the right things, some extra protein for sure.”
Biggest indicator of improvement for Harrison?
Harrison kept the focus on the Cardinals rather than himself when asked what improvement looks like in his second season.
“I think we got to make the playoffs,” the receiver said. “We have all the pieces we need. We just got to go out there and execute at this point, and that’s why they brought me here, to help this team win games.
“So improvement for me looks like winning more games than we won last year [eight]. … I want to get a home playoff game for Arizona.”
The receiver was in a suite when State Farm Stadium held a playoff game between the Los Angeles Rams and Minnesota Vikings due to the Los Angeles fires, and he said it left a sour taste in his mouth.
“It was just like, there’s a team playing in the playoffs in our building. That just didn’t feel right,” Harrison said.
A different weird feeling could be on the horizon when Harrison travels to play the Indianapolis Colts on Oct. 12 against the same team his father became a Hall of Famer for.
“We had the preseason game last year. I didn’t get a chance to play in that one,” Harrison recalled. “But I’m sure that’s going to be a special game for me and my family to go back to Indy and play there.”
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