Cardinals wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. hopes for bigger success in his second NFL season and he’ll bring a bigger body with him in pursuit of that goal.
Harrison had a press conference at the team’s facility on Monday and one of the first questions concerned the 2024 first-round pick having a bulkier build than he had during his first NFL season. Harrison confirmed that there’s more of him this spring, which “just happened naturally” as a result of eating the right foods and the wideout said he’ll spend the rest of the offseason figuring out the best weight for him during the season.
“I definitely put on some pounds,” Harrison said. “I think I added some muscle to my body a little bit. Still just trying to see how my body feels throughout OTAs . . . Kind of get that specific weight to settle in for training camp and go from there.”
Harrison, who was the fourth overall pick last year, said “contested catch situations, run off the catch” when discussing areas he thinks that the added muscles could help him with in 2025. He had 62 catches for 885 yards and eight touchdowns to kick off his NFL career.
Larry Fitzgerald expects Marvin Harrison Jr. to be a better receiver in his second season, and Harrison expects the same.
He caught 62 passes for 855 yards and a team-leading eight touchdowns as a rookie in 2024.
His father, Hall of Famer Marvin Harrison, made 64 catches for 836 yards and eight touchdowns as a rookie in 1996.
“A little too similar in my opinion,” Harrison Jr. said, laughing, via video from Bo Brack of PHNX Cardinals. “But nah, it works out in mysterious ways, and it all worked out.”
Harrison Jr., whose father caught 73 passes for 866 yards and six touchdowns in his second season, has only one thing that will constitute improvement in Year 2.
“Improvement for me is winning more games,” Harrison Jr. said. “I want to get a home playoff game for Arizona. I actually went to the [Rams-Vikings playoff] game, and it was like, ‘There is a team playing the playoffs in our building.’ It just didn’t feel right.”
The Cardinals went 8-9 last season, missing the playoffs for the third consecutive season and for the eighth time in the past nine seasons. They have not won a playoff game since 2015 when Bruce Arians was the coach, Carson Palmer was the quarterback and Fitzgerald was the top wide receiver.
Cardinals wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. had a solid rookie season in 2024, catching 62 passes for 855 yards and leading the team with eight touchdowns. But the greatest receiver in franchise history expects more from Harrison this year.
“I saw a guy who made a lot of plays,” Fitzgerald said of Harrison, via Theo Mackie of the Arizona Republic. “He did a really good job. When the ball came to him, he made his plays. He’s only gonna continue to get better so I’m excited to see his Year 2.”
Fitzgerald said he’s available to mentor Harrison but noted that a player with a father who’s a Hall of Fame wide receiver doesn’t need a lot of mentoring.
“If he ever needs anything, I told him, I’m always available for him any way I can be helpful,” Fitzgerald said. “But fortunately he has a father who was a heck of a lot better than I was so he can tap into him whenever he likes.”
Whether Harrison Sr. was better than Fitzgerald is open to debate, but what’s clear is that Harrison Jr. has the talent to be mentioned alongside either of them. The Cardinals hope to see Harrison Jr. begin his journey toward getting into that conversation in 2025.
The 17th weekend of the 2025 season starts with a trio of Christmas games. It continues with a Saturday tripleheader, capped by an exclusive prime-time game on Peacock.
The three games for the Saturday slate will come from a group of five games.
The five games earmarked for the Saturday shift are Seahawks at Panthers, Cardinals at Bengals, Ravens at Packers, Texans at Chargers, and Giants at Raiders.
The best of the bunch, as of May 14, is Ravens at Packers. Texans at Chargers is close behind, since it’s a playoff rematch from 2024.
The other games could become more compelling as the season unfolds. And with five games in play to be dropped into prime time on Saturday night, chances are at least one will involve a pair of teams in playoff contention.
The Cardinals signed fourth-round pick Cody Simon on Monday, the team announced.
Arizona made the Ohio State linebacker the 115th overall pick.
The Cardinals have signed five of their seven selections, with only first-round pick Walter Nolen III and second-round pick Will Johnson unsigned.
Simon will compete for the starting job alongside Mack Wilson Sr. at inside linebacker. Free agent signees Akeem Davis-Gaither and Mykel Walker and holdover Owen Pappoe are other candidates for the job.
Simon earned defensive MVP honors at the CFP National Championship and the Rose Bowl last season. He had 112 tackles, 13 tackles for loss, seven sacks and seven passes defensed in 2024.
During his five seasons at Ohio State, Simon played 58 games with 30 starts and had 259 tackles, 23 tackles for loss, 10 sacks, 11 passes defensed, two forced fumbles, one fumble recovery and one interception. He was a four-time OSU Scholar-Athlete and four-time Academic All-Big Ten selection.
