If you’ve been doomscrolling recently, you’ve likely seen one creator in your feed: Brandon Carney, aka BenchwarmerBran. With 990k followers on TikTok, 602k on YouTube and 428k on Instagram, Bran has amassed quite the following thanks to his entertaining (and insightful) takes on everything from the Shedeur Sanders slide to Brock Purdy’s payday to the 2025 NFL Schedule release (including a Kyler Murray height joke. Sigh.)
Bran knows his football and often shares his knowledge while offering tips for your fantasy league. When ranking every WR duo in the NFL, Bran had plenty to say about the Arizona Cardinals’ receivers.
BenchwarmerBran Says Marvin Harrison Jr. and Michael Wilson Are ‘Meh’
In Brandon’s May 15 video, the sports personality set up six tiers, from best to worst: Elite, Great, Good, Meh, Yikes and What.
“The Arizona Cardinals are going to go in ‘Meh,’” he said, ranking the combination of Marvin Harrison Jr. and Michael Wilson on the lower side of mid. “Last you, you could probably argue [putting] them in ‘Yikes,’ but I am going to give them a little bit of the benefit of the doubt that Marvin Harrison Jr. is going to have a better year two than he did year one.”
“We were expecting MAJOR things from him as the fourth overall pick in last year’s draft. We thought he would come in and be the next Ja’Marr Chase, Justin Jefferson type of a guy. And that’s not what he did. And it doesn’t seem that’s the type of receiver he’s going to be going forward, but he can still be a really, really good, really productive receiver.”
“This is sort of a tentative placement. Because, again, if we go off just last year, you could certainly put them a tier lower,” he said. “But I’m gonna hold out hope for Ol’ Marv’ for at least one more year.”
At the end of the video, Marvin Harrison Jr. and Michael Wilson were on the bottom of the “Meh” tier, meaning they could have easily been downgraded.
Brandon ranked 18 teams higher than the Cardinals, with the Cincinnati Bengals’ Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins at the top. The only teams Brandon ranked lower were the Las Vegas Raiders (Jakobi Myers, Trey Tucker), the Buffalo Bills (Khalil Shakir, Keon Coleman), the Carolina Panthers (Tetairoa McMillan, Xavier Legette), the New England Patriots (Stefon Diggs, DeMario Douglas) and the Green Bay Packers (Matthew Golden, Romeo Doubs, the only ‘What’ team).
Is Bran’s Ranking ‘Elite’ Or Is It ‘Yikes’
Bran has a history of being hard on Marvin Harrison Jr., if you couldn’t tell from him not mentioning Michael Wilson at all during his ranking. But, as Bran said in his video, he had high hopes for Marvin Harrison Jr., and the rookie receiver didn’t really live up to those expectations.
But is Bran off the mark with this “meh” ranking?
Let’s look at Marvin Jr.'s stats from 2024: He was targeted 116 times, making 62 catches for 885 yards and eight touchdowns.
While that’s not exactly horrendous, compare them to Ja’Marr Chase. In 2024, Ja’Marr was targeted 175 times, making 127 receptions for 1,708 yards and 17 touchdowns.
Even as a rookie, Ja’Marr was targeted 128 times, making 81 catches for 1,455 yards and 13 touchdowns—well ahead of the numbers Marvin Jr.'s rookie performance.
But it takes two people to make a reception: one to catch the ball, and one to throw it. In Ja’Marr’s rookie year, he had Joe Burrow as his quarterback.
Burrow's completion percentage was 70% in 2021. He made 366/520 passes for 4,611 yards, 34 touchdowns and 14 interceptions. His adjusted quarterback rating was 60.2.
Compare those 2021 stats to what Kyler Murray put up in 2024: 372 completed passes out of 541 attempts, 3,851 yards, 21 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. Though he had a lower completion percentage (68.8%) than Burrow in 2021, Murray had a higher adjusted QBR with 66.5.
While this might lead some to think that Joe Burrow and Kyler Murray are on equal footing, it says that 2024 Kyler was equal to 2021 Joe. In 2024, Joe went 460/652 for nearly 5k yards, 43 touchdowns and just nine interceptions.
I’m going to sound like a broken record in saying that Kyler Murray needs to step up: but he needs to step up. Kyler Murray’s 2025 needs to be like Joe Burrow’s 2024. And that will result in bigger numbers for Marvin Harrison Jr. …and for Michael Wilson.
Remember him? In 2024, he was targeted 71 times, making 47 catches for just 528 yards and four touchdowns.
While Marvin Jr. and Michael’s “Meh” designation isn’t wholly unjustified, Murray needs to produce more for them to improve.