June is here, and that means a whole lot of speculatin’. As the Arizona Cardinals go through the OTAs, next month’s training camps, and August’s preseason games, fans and football experts alike will make bold predictions regarding the 2025-26 season. Will the team expand upon its 8-9 record? Will the Cardinals regress and finish last in the division? Will they have a 10-win season or more? Will head coach Jonathan Gannon have a job if they fail to make the playoffs?
Bold predictions are usually the realm of armchair analysts and highly-paid sports writers. And for the Cardinals, there are two estimations that everyone makes: Kyler Murray needs to step up this season, and Marvin Harrison Jr. needs to show that he wasn’t a rookie flop.
Case in point: the new prediction from NFL.com’s Jeffri Chadiha.
Marvin Harrison Jr. having a ‘breakout year’ will make Cardinals playoff contenders
In Chadiha’s column last Thursday, the veteran NFL analyst joined the growing chorus of people saying that Marvin Harrison Jr. had a “solid rookie season” but fell short of expectations for the No. 4 overall 2024 draft pick.
Despite Marvin Jr. racking up 62 receptions for 885 yards and eight touchdowns, Chadiha writes that the wide receiver ”suffered from the same issues that haunted Caleb Williams: The expectations were much higher for him when he entered the league. Some people talked about Harrison as if the Cardinals had just found their next Larry Fitzgerald when he became the fourth overall pick in last year’s draft, a foundational receiver who would dominate for years to come.”
“Harrison still has ample time to deliver on his potential, and a breakout season this fall would make the Cardinals turn the corner on becoming playoff contenders. This team was sitting at 6-4 in early November, with a four-game win streak inspiring optimism about the Cardinals playing meaningful football in January. They ultimately lost five of their last seven games, and Harrison failed to reach 65 receiving yards in six of those contests. That can’t happen in his second season.”
Chadiha writes that Harrison showed “flashes of what he could become” throughout last season, specifically mentioning Marvin Jr. receiving for 130 yards in the Cardinal’s 41-10 win over the Los Angeles Rams in Week 2, and the 111-yard effort in the team’s comeback win over the Miami Dolphins in Week 8.
Harrison “needs to do more of that, which isn’t a ridiculous goal, now that he’s had a full offseason to work with quarterback Kyler Murray,” writes Chadiha, before adding in the shade of how Ohio State wide receivers like Garrett Wilson, Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Chis Olave don’t usually fail to producer 1,000-yard seasons within their first two years in the NFL.
“Harrison was considered better than all those guys when he arrived,” he writes. “The Cardinals need him to prove as much this fall.”
Harrison Knows He Needs To Improve
Harrison only had three games with double-digit targets in his rookie season and only caught five or more passes in just seven of the 17 games that he played, per 247Sports.
Marvin Jr., who has bulked up in the offseason, told the media that his focus is “getting the timing down, [and] being precise in everything that we do.”
“I feel like we should go out there with our eyes closed and be able to complete 100 percent of our passage is kind of the goal that you want to be to get to, just from a timing on air standpoint,” he added.
Marvin Jr said that the playoffs are the goal for him and the team. "I think this is the year that I feel like we want to do what we need to do. We have all the pieces we need. We've just gotta go out there and execute at this point. That's why they brought me here to help his team win games.”