The timeline of the Marvin Harrison Jr. trade was, no doubt, strange.
On the morning of Saturday, Oct. 10, multiple national insiders reported that a trade was finalized — without specifying Harrison’s next team or the return compensation. Over the following 24 hours, some of those details gradually trickled out, with the Houston Texans reported as a likely — though not certain — destination. Then, Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans announced the trade on Sunday, Oct. 11, in his postgame press conference, walking out of the room before taking any more questions.
In recent memory, there has not been a trade saga quite like it. So, what exactly happened?
Texans general manager Nick Caserio appeared on 95.7 The Fan in Houston to offer some answers.
He
repeatedly pointed to his “really good relationship” with Cardinals general manager Monti Ossenfort as a key ingredient in the trade. The two worked together in the Patriots front office for more than a decade and made a blockbuster deal in 2023, when the Cardinals sent the No. 3 overall pick to Houston.
“He and I agreed to the deal Friday night,” Caserio said. “The deal was basically done Friday night. We kinda had an agreement in place. I gave him my word, he gave me his word. But he wanted to handle it a certain way, as it pertains to the communication and some of the other things. So we certainly didn’t have a problem with that at all.”
Ossenfort has not yet explained his view of the deal, as he has not made a media appearance since the trade. The Cardinals declined to make him available for a press conference this week.
Caserio added that the Cardinals communicated to Harrison that he was going to be inactive on Saturday morning. Cardinals quarterback Jacoby Brissett previously revealed that the Cardinals and Harrison told teammates that the move was happening that same morning, prior to the news breaking.
“I think they wanted to wait until after the game to communicate to the player, ‘Hey, this is where you’re going,’” Caserio said. “Which, no problem at all.”
That didn’t come to reality. The Texans were widely speculated as Harrison’s trade destination throughout the day Saturday, while Ryans’ announcement came moments before the Cardinals’ game kicked off in Arizona.
Caserio, though, denied that the Texans would not have made the trade if they lost in Week 5, falling to 0-5. That had been reported as the hold-up by Jordan Schultz in an appearance on Ryan Clark’s studio show.
“What happened in the game had absolutely zero bearing on whether or not we were gonna consummate the transaction,” Caserio said. “We’re not gonna agree to something and then see what happens in the game and then back out of it. We’re gonna do that. I don’t operate that way. We’re not gonna operate that way.”
Caserio added that the trade had been percolating behind the scenes for “two weeks or so.”
“I had kinda reached out and just said, ‘Hey, we’re looking around here a little bit, potentially could be interested, not sure if there’s any interest on your end,’” Caserio said. “I wouldn’t say that they were actively shopping the guy or trading the guy, but part of our responsibility is to inquire and ask questions.”
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Texans GM reveals view of delay in Cardinals' Marvin Harrison Jr. trade
