DeMeco Ryans: MHJ will play in Week 6 vs. Jaguars

It tied his season-high for receptions in four games with Arizona. Harrison played just 12 snaps. The Texans do seem dedicated to giving him the ball — as you’d hope after he was acquired for a second-round pick — and we imagine he’ll be in the FLEX conversation next week against the Giants after a full week to hone trust with the coaching staff. His first two catches were on in-breaking routes.

Harrison, 24, gets a fresh start partway through his third NFL season. The former first-round pick has averaged just 47.8 receiving yards per game in 33 career games. Adjusting to a new scheme on the fly could be challenging, and Harrison has not proven himself to be a reliable fantasy contributor. It could be tough sledding for fantasy managers, but if Harrison quickly adjusts to his new team, he has a clear runway to No. 2 wide receiver duties next to Nico Collins. He should be rostered in 12-team leagues. The Cardinals are also sending a 2027 seventh-round pick to the Texans in exchange for a 2027 sixth-round pick.

Life continues to be rough for fantasy managers rostering Harrison. The soon-to-be ex-Cardinal will not participate in what should be a fantasy-friendly game against the porous Lions defense. Bummer. Still no definitive word on where he will end up next week. Trey McBride, Michael Wilson and Kendrick Bourne benefit from his absence. The Cardinals will be without Wingard, one of two starting safeties, but will have DT Walter Nolen (calf) available to them.

The Cardinals informed Harrison this morning that he will be inactive for Sunday’s game against the Lions as the details of the trade are finalized, according to Schefter. While it’s unclear where Harrison is headed, Schefter mentions the Houston Texans as one team known to have interest. The Ringer’s Tom Pelissero reported this morning that the Cardinals could be seeking a second-round pick and a mid-round pick in return. Harrison has just five catches for 85 yards and one touchdown in four games this year. According to Schefter, no Harrison trade will be completed until after Sunday’s games. Stay tuned.

Pelissero says the Cardinals would want a second-pick and perhaps a mid-round pick in exchange for Harrison. The 24-year-old receiver was drafted fourth overall two years ago, but under new coach Matt LaFluer he has 85 yards in four games this year. Pelissero points to Harrison’s decision to hire an agent last month as evidence he could be preparing for a trade. While Harrison has obviously been a disappointment in fantasy this year, he should find his way into some starting lineups against the Lions secondary in Week 5.

Harrison capped the Cardinals’ opening drive with a beautiful 12-yard end zone grab against Deonte Banks’ 1-on-1 coverage. It was the best possible start to the beleaguered wideout’s day. It would also prove to be a false start, as he caught zero other passes on three scattered targets. Admittedly, that does not include a late DPI that set the Cardinals up at the Giants’ four-yard line as they desperately sought a potential game-winning touchdown. Good, but nowhere close to enough for all involved. MHJ has now been out-targeted 30-9 by Michael Wilson over the past two weeks. That is to say nothing of Trey McBride. The Lions are a plus Week 5 matchup, but Harrison Jr. remains more waiver wire fodder than potential upside FLEX option.

Schefter noted that the Cardinals aren’t “enthralled” with the idea of trading Harrison Jr. He also said point-blank that “it would not be a surprise” for MHJ to be traded. As much as the Cardinals may not want to admit it, this experiment needs to come to an end. The team has Michael Wilson and Trey McBride locked up on long-term contracts and MHJ has done nothing this year. He has four catches for 73 scoreless yards this year. At this point, it’s likely in the best interest of both sides for Harrison Jr. to find a new home.

Harrison finished the day with a modest 3/40 receiving line, though that represents a small share of the Cardinals’ offensive output on the day. His first target was a declined offensive pass interference on third down and his first reception came in the second quarter. Harrison did make a clutch catch on third-and-long in the fourth quarter but he ultimately saw just five targets on a day where Jacoby Brissett threw 52 passes. Michael Wilson looks like Brissett’s preferred wide receiver while the deep looks Harrison can excel at are not easily obtainable in this iteration of the Cardinals offense. Harrison is a low-end fantasy WR4 at best against the Giants next week.

“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.

“Schematically, it wasn’t good,” LaFleur added, presumably while giving himself a wedgie. Harrison only saw one official target — another was wiped away by penalty — and he played just 74 percent of the snaps. The real problem here is that when the Cardinals ran well on offense in Week 1, Harrison had just one catch for 33 yards on three targets. He’s going to be hard to trust in any given week until we see it “click” in some way with LaFleur’s offense.