When Jacoby Brissett arrived at Arizona Cardinals practice on Wednesday, he found Marvin Harrison Jr., walked up to the embattled wide receiver and wrapped him in a lengthy embrace.
“Nobody has lost confidence in Marv,” Brissett said earlier in the day, even as external concerns continue to mount.
Through two games, Harrison has one catch on four targets for 33 yards. In Week 2, he finished a healthy game without a catch for the first time in his career.
“Does Marv want the ball? Yes,” Brissett said. “Do we understand that he wants the ball? Yes. Is it only Week 2? Yes. It's a lot of things that you try to emphasize that at some point the tide will change.
"When? We don't know yet but hopefully soon.”
When asked about Harrison’s run blocking — another
subject of criticism this week — head coach Mike LaFleur said that the wide receiver has “really embraced that challenge.”
LaFleur, though, was then asked whether Harrison’s effort in that area is up to par. This time, he offered a more tepid response.
“I think all of our efforts need to continue to improve,” LaFleur said. “Cause once we hit a standard, there's gonna be another level to reach there.”
The Cardinals have also not committed to a full-throttle approach to getting Harrison involved with manufactured targets.
In his press conference, Brissett was asked whether the Cardinals need to get the ball to Harrison early, in order to get him in a rhythm.
“Uh, that's so hard to say,” Brissett said. “It's more so, I just want to play good football. I want him to play good football. I want us as an offense to play good football. The ball's gonna go where the ball's gonna go.
"I guess hopefully it's earlier than later. But the flow of the game is the flow of the game.”
LaFleur offered a similar answer earlier in the week, when asked about creating easy, short-yardage targets for Harrison.
“You also have Trey McBride, who's one of the best underneath guys in the world,” LaFleur said. “And there's only about 60, 65 plays a game. And you've gotta run the ball. And you've got Kendrick (Bourne), who works underneath pretty well, too. So everyone's kind of got their role.”
The Cardinals, then, seem likely to keep Harrison in his current role, which has largely been as a deep threat. Through two games, he has run go routes at a 33.3% rate, up from 19.9% last season, per Fantasy Points Data.
That role is inherently more impacted by opposing coverages. If teams are playing with multiple deep safeties, opportunities for downfield shots are few and far between. And as the Cardinals showed in Week 2, those rare opportunities can be scuttled by all 11 players on the field.
To execute a deep shot, the wide receiver needs to get open, the offensive line needs to hold up and the quarterback needs to execute.
But despite Harrison’s limited involvement — and apparent limited effort — LaFleur played down the notion that Harrison is not happy in Arizona.
“Marv seems like Marv to me,” LaFleur said. “I'm not gonna sit here and act like I don't know the narrative going on. This is the league and, naturally, stuff gets across my desk. But in between those walls, Marv is Marv.
"He's attacking it every single day like he always does, just like his teammates do. I appreciate the way he goes about his business.”
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Cardinals defend Marvin Harrison Jr. amid onslaught of criticism
