In a draft class that included six quarterbacks selected in the 1st round and numerous players on both sides of the ball who project to be bonafide stars at some point in their career, Marvin Harrison Jr. came into the league with a unique kind of pressure that not too many players know about.
Marvin Harrison Jr., the son and namesake of former Indianapolis Colts great and Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee Marvin Harrison Sr., was expected to arrive in the NFL as a fully-formed entity. Someone who could and would dominate even the best competition immediately upon his arrival. However, Harrison’s first season with the Arizona Cardinals yielded impressive, but underwhelming results.
But with first year growing pains behind him, Harrison is expected to bounce back in a big way during the 2025 campaign. And one man who believes Harrison is on the verge of a second year surge, not slump, this season is former Cardinals great Larry Fitzgerald, who shared an optimistic view of the 22-year-old’s upcoming second season during a recent interview with Eric Williams of FOX Sports.
“He’s a tremendous young player,” Fitzgerald said of Harrison on July 15. “He had a really nice rookie season. He made a lot of plays. And it looks like he’s gotten a lot stronger physically. So, to be able to get off press [coverage] and be able to have the physicality in the running game and the things he needs to do, it’s going to be a huge benefit to him.
Cardinals Fans Hope For Fitzgerald-esque Leap from Harrison
In addition to adding what looks like several pounds of muscle, as Larry Fitzgerald alluded to, during the offseason, Fitzgerald anticipates that having even just a little more familiarity with the rigors of an NFL schedule could result in a bigger season for Marvin Harrison Jr. this fall.
“I also think in Year 2 the game just naturally slows down. You know the system better. You know the flow of the season and the schedule. There’s not as many mysteries going in. You’ve done it already,” Fitzgerald said. “You know the hand signals. You know the adjustments. You know two-minute and the situational football. All of those things get significantly easier for you going into Year 2. It definitely did for me.”
Fitzgerald isn’t wrong. From year one to year two, the eventual 11-time Pro Bowler nearly doubled both his receiving yards (780 to 1,409) and his receptions (58 to 104) totals, and saw his touchdowns increase from 8 to 10.
Yes, Fitzgerald’s quarterback situation improved between those two seasons, and presently, it’s still Kyler Murray who will be dialing it up to Harrison once again, but that continuity with a quarterback who has Murray’s upside, could end up benefitting Harrison. Especially if Kyler Murray has a level yet to reach that we haven’t seen.
A Fitzgerald-Harrison Family Affair in Arizona
As mentioned above, being the son of one of the greatest wide receivers in NFL history adds a level of pressure that Marvin Harrison Jr. is experiencing as a wide receiver himself. But in a somewhat strange twist, now he is the one who can offer advice to the next generation of Fitzgerald receivers, just as Larry Fitzgerald likely has for him since being drafted by the Cardinals last April.
Devin Fitzgerald, son of Larry Fitzgerald, is a three-star wide receiver who has committed to playing for Notre Dame during the 2026 college football season. If/when Devin makes it to the NFL, he’ll face the same challenges that Marvin Harrison Jr. has already faced. So it makes sense, with Devin going to high school in Phoenix, that he’s already spoken with Harrison Jr. about what the weight of familial expectations, and what sitting in your father’s shadow, feels like.
“I talked to Marvin Harrison Jr. about this. He said he wasn’t known as [himself] until he started balling out at Ohio State,” Devin Fitzgerald told TMZ Sports on July 13.
With one big season in 2025, Marvin Harrison Jr. will be able to escape the Hall of Famer’s shadow, even if only for a little bit. If Jr. tops the thousand yard mark this year, he’ll have done so twice as quickly as his father did.
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