LaFleur: We didn’t throw the ball for crap anyway

“I know it’s like, ‘Well, just get some easy completions to get going,’” LaFleur told Mackie. “And that’s fine. You also have Trey McBride, who’s one of the best underneath guys in the world. And there’s only about 60, 65 plays a game. And you’ve gotta run the ball. And you’ve got Kendrick, who works underneath pretty well too. So everyone’s kind of got their role.” In other words; don’t look for LaFleur to bail your Harrison fantasy pick out. If Harrison does get cooking this year it’ll be in the normal flow of their offense. So far that has yielded just four targets in two games.

Harrison was a ghost in this one. His lone target occurred on the Cardinals’ sixth drive, but he was unable to secure it. The Cardinals will likely need Harrison to contribute if they hope to put up a fight against the 49ers next week, but at this point, he does not necessarily need to be in starting lineups in 12-team leagues. He can only be viewed as a boom-bust FLEX.

Harrison was an afterthought in the Arizona offense as Jacoby Brissett threw for 277 yards and a score in the victory. MHJ was targeted on 11 percent of his routes. His lone grab came on a well-thrown sideline ball that was reeled in over tight coverage. Michael Wilson continued working as Brissett’s preferred downfield option and Trey McBride was a target magnet in the short areas. Harrison will be viable in deep leagues next week against a stingy Seattle coverage unit.

Harrison left Cardinals practice on Sunday with an apparent injury, meeting with the training staff and working on his back. Head coach Mike LaFleur revealed Harrison’s injury issue as just cramps. In his Tuesday return, Harrison worked as the WR1 in the Cardinals offense, working in 13 personnel and totaling more snaps than Michael Wilson. Harrison looks healthy for now and and enters camp with another chance to be the team’s No. 2 pass-catcher.

A couple of Cardinals beat reporters chimed in on this one, but the situation is still a little fuzzy. It appears as though Harrison may have tweaked his back, but in a video posted by ESPN’s Josh Weinfuss, Harrison can be seen pointing to his left ankle when he initially met with the Cardinals’ training staff. After that, Harrison did seem to focus his efforts on his back, walking around while attempting to stretch it out, at times “grimacing as he bends backward” and even attempting a yoga cobra pose on the sideline — not kidding. The Cardinals have the day off tomorrow and resume practicing on Tuesday. If we do not get an update before then, his participation that day will at least tell us something. Hopefully, this is a non-issue.

Weinfuss writes, “in theory, Harrison is Arizona’s WR1 based on draft status and pedigree,” but “Wilson may think otherwise.” Due to TE Trey McBride’s presence, it is “widely important” to establish which player is viewed as the top wide receiver because the “WR2 could, potentially, be the third receiving option, and the third receiving option doesn’t tend to get their fair share of passes.” Wilson has not yet received the contract extension he was hoping for this offseason, which counts against him in the pecking order. Still, it is worth noting that ESPN’s Cardinals beat reporter believes a competition could be underway soon enough.

“But, obviously, it’s definitely nothing that prevents me from anything at the moment. I go 100%. I’m still out there doing everything I normally would do, but yeah, it’s just like an ongoing process for sure,” Harrison added. He had two heel injuries, appendicitis, and a concussion while missing five games last year. There doesn’t seem to be any specific reason for concern here, but this is not the type of thing you normally see an NFL player admit, so it’s eye-catching.

LaFleur is a Sean McVay understudy, having spent the last three seasons serving as the Rams’ offensive coordinator. He worked with Adams for one year. Harrison (6'3/220) is a natural fit for the X-receiver role in any system, but he has been nowhere near as efficient as Adams was last season, so we can’t simply take this one to the bank. At this point, we’ll settle for reliable fantasy WR3 production. All that said, if LaFleur is saying he plans to feature Harrison in the red zone, akin to the way Adams was used in Los Angeles, we suppose a ceiling outcome could be in play for the Cardinals’ 23-year-old receiver. We’re keeping an eye on Harrison’s development this summer.

Cardinals coach Jonathan Gannon said Harrison would continue to play through his heel injury this week if he was healthy enough. It turns out that the 23-year-old receiver isn’t healthy enough after hurting his other foot in the Week 17 loss to the Bengals. Harrison wasn’t having much of an impact with one catch in the last two games since returning to the lineup. With Harrison out, Michael Wilson is a must-start option for fantasy managers. Wilson is the WR3 over the last seven weeks behind only Puka Nacua and Jaxon Smith-Njigba. He needs 93 yards in Week 18 to have his first 1,000-yard season.

It certainly seems like forcing Harrison to play through this heel injury isn’t helping anybody — he’s caught one ball in two games since returning, leaving each of them early — but Gannon refused to rule it out. Either way, Trey McBride and Michael Wilson are the Cardinals you actually want to start in fantasy leagues in Week 18. Harrison would be hard to trust if active.