Marvin Harrison Jr. Trade Rumors Are Real, but Adam Schefter Says the Cardinals Are Not Sold
Marvin Harrison Jr. was the fourth overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft and the most celebrated receiver prospect of his class. Through three games this season he has four catches.
On Sunday, Adam Schefter said on “Sunday NFL Countdown” that the Arizona Cardinals are doing their due diligence on trading him but are not enthralled by the idea.
That is a careful way of saying a team is listening without wanting to pick up the phone.
The production problem
Harrison has four receptions on nine targets for 73 yards and no touchdowns in three games. Nine targets in three games is the number that should alarm Arizona more than the catches.
His career line is not much better: 107 catches for 1,566 yards and 12 touchdowns in 32 games. For a top-five pick at a position that typically produces immediately, two seasons of that is a problem.
ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler reported Harrison would have a market, though not for a high pick, suggesting something in the range of a quality Day 3 selection. One evaluator cited drops and competitive intensity.
A 24-year-old former No. 4 pick drawing Day 3 interest is a brutal market assessment, and it explains why Arizona would rather keep him than sell at that price.
Why the market opened
None of this would be public conversation if Pittsburgh had not traded cornerback Joey Porter Jr. to Dallas on October 1 for a 2028 second-round pick and a conditional 2027 sixth.
That deal told every front office that it is October and business is open. The trade deadline is November 10.
Schefter named two other veterans in the same segment. Jerry Jeudy, a seventh-year receiver in Cleveland being squeezed out by rookies Denzel Boston and KC Concepcion, has five catches for 62 yards and no touchdowns and could be had before the deadline. Khalil Mack re-signed with the Chargers on a one-year deal to chase a title, and with Los Angeles at 0-3, Schefter said the team needs to turn it around to keep him.
Arizona’s situation
The Cardinals are 1-2. That is the worst possible record for this decision, because it is bad enough to consider selling and not bad enough to be obvious about it.
No team has confirmed talks on Harrison on the record. There are no named trade partners. Arizona has issued no public statement.
Our take
Trading Harrison now would be a mistake, and not because he has been good. It would be a mistake because the return is a Day 3 pick.
A receiver with his pedigree is either going to figure it out or he is not, and finding out costs Arizona nothing except patience. Selling him for a fourth or fifth-rounder locks in the worst possible outcome from a decision the Cardinals made two years ago, and it does it in a season that is already going nowhere at 1-2.
The honest read on the Schefter update is that Arizona already knows this. Due diligence is what you call answering the phone. Not being enthralled is what you call hanging it up.
Jeudy is the player most likely to actually move here. A seventh-year veteran with five catches on a 3-1 team that has found two rookie receivers is exactly the kind of contract a contender takes a flyer on.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
