Cardinals WR Marvin Harrison Jr. Made Right Decision Before Draft

Arizona Cardinals WR Marvin Harrison Jr. didn't participate in any draft stuff - and that proved to be the right call.

Apr 25, 2024; Detroit, MI, USA; Ohio State Buckeyes wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. poses after / Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

ARIZONA -- The Arizona Cardinals have a prized possession on their hands.

Marvin Harrison Jr. was available with the No. 4 overall pick, and despite months of reports suggesting the Cardinals were looking to move off the selection, general manager Monti Ossenfort ultimately stuck and chose the Ohio State receiver considered generational by many draft evaluators.

For all schools of thought, it was an easy selection. Harrison plugged the biggest need and was the draft's top player outside of the quarterback position.

Slam-dunk? Absolutely. No-brainer? Of course.

But Harrison - for as reserved as he is - made a decision to skip notable pre-draft events and workouts. That ended up rubbing some people the wrong way, but as Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer points out, it was ultimately the right move.

"Marvin Harrison Jr. was right, Caleb Williams was right, and more playing moving forward will make their decisions on the lead-up to the draft accordingly. The end result really does make this one academic. Williams went No. 1, so he couldn’t have gone any higher than he did. And you could argue the same for Harrison, since he was the first nonquarterback drafted," wrote Breer.

"Both made waves during the week of the NFL Scouting Combine for the approach they took. Williams declined to take a physical in Indianapolis on the premise that it made no sense for him to give his full medical information to 31 teams that wouldn’t have a chance to draft him. Harrison declined to work out or test there or at his pro day, with the idea being that rather than wasting time and money on training for Olympic testing, he’d be best simply preparing for rookie year.

"In the end, it did no damage to either guy.

"The Chicago Bears got Williams’s medicals on the 30 visit, and 31 teams that are now his rivals don’t have information that could be damaging to him or Chicago. The Arizona Cardinals, meanwhile, are ecstatic to get a player who will be ready to hit the ground running at rookie minicamp and OTAs after training with the Ohio State strength staff as he would if he were suiting up to play football for the Buckeyes in the fall."

Harrison simply would not have benefited enough to perform in the circus of events leading into the draft, as he was already viewed as a top-five lock after his time at Ohio State concluded.

The Cardinals knew what Harrison was doing all along.

“Yeah, he's in shape, so he takes care of himself. That's one of the things he is very mature about (is) understanding how to handle the demands of playing that position, staying healthy and staying on the field, but injuries happen so he'll be ready to go when he gets in here," Jonathan Gannon told reporters on draft night.

It looks like things worked out for both sides.