The trade to send Marvin Harrison Jr. from the Cardinals to the Texans became official on Monday as the receiver passed his physical.
Head coach DeMeco Ryans told reporters in his Monday press conference that the team is excited to add the young wideout.
“He’s another really great playmaker,” Ryans said, via transcript from the team. “He’s crushed a lot of college records. Got multiple thousand-yard receiving seasons in college. All-American, always been a top receiver when he’s been on the field. He has good rapport with C.J. [Stroud] from their time at Ohio State. We’re excited to get him in, add another great player to our group.”
Ryans noted that he’s not worried about Harrison picking up a new scheme quickly to impact the club.
“The thing that I’ve heard from a lot of people speaking about Marvin is he’s one of the hardest workers,” Ryans said. “That’s the common theme that I’ve heard from multiple people, how hard of a worker he is. I’m not concerned about him picking up the offense and what he can be able to run for us, the things that he’ll be able to do for us offensively. I’m not concerned about it because the kid is a hard worker. He has a great attitude. He’s fired up to be here. When you approach it that way, as he will, he’ll fit right in.”
Plus, Harrison’s built-in chemistry with Stroud should speed up that process. Ryans noted the team solicited Stroud’s input on Harrison before executing the deal.
“I hope so,” Ryans said. “I think anytime you have players who have spent time together, whether it’s college or other teams, just having that prior relationship definitely helps when you come into a new situation.”
The No. 4 overall pick of the 2024 draft, Harrison’s production to this point of his career has not matched that draft status. After catching 62 passes for 885 yards with eight touchdowns as a rookie, he had 41 receptions for 608 yards with four touchdowns in 12 games last season.
He caught just five passes for 85 yards with a TD in four games this year before the trade.
Texans Clips
The Jaguars won’t have left tackle Anton Harrison in the lineup against the Texans in Week 6 and it’s unclear when he will be back in action.
Harrison injured his knee during the team’s win over the Eagles in London in Week 5 and he is set to have arthroscopic surgery to repair his injury. Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports that his return timeline will be determined once doctors see the extent of the damage to his knee.
Per the report, Harrison could be out for about 3-5 weeks or he could be out for the rest of the season.
Walker Little replaced Harrison on Trevor Lawrence’s blind side against the Eagles and will be set to hold down the spot as long as Harrison is unavailable.
Wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. passed his physical on Monday, according to multiple reports.
That makes his trade from Arizona to Houston official.
The Cardinals will receive a second-round and a seventh-round pick (originally belonging to the 49ers) in 2027 in exchange for Harrison and a 2027 sixth-round pick.
The Texans waived wide receiver Jared Wayne in a corresponding move.
Harrison, the fourth overall pick in the 2024 draft, reunites with his former Ohio State teammate, C.J. Stroud, in Houston. He finished his Cardinals career with 33 games played, 108 receptions, 1,578 yards and 13 touchdowns.
At the end of his news conference Sunday, Texans coach DeMeco Ryans confirmed his team acquired wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. in a trade with the Cardinals. The Cardinals announced the trade Monday.
The Cardinals will receive a second-round and a seventh-round pick (originally belonging to the 49ers) in 2027 in exchange for Harrison and a 2027 sixth-round pick.
The agreement is still pending Harrison passing a physical.
General Manager Monti Ossenfort addressed the trade in a statement.
“Decisions like this are never easy,” Ossenfort said. “Ultimately, we have to do what is best for our football team and that will always be the driving factor. We are extremely grateful to Marvin for what he has contributed to our organization and wish him the very best as he moves forward in his career.”
Harrison, the fourth overall pick in the 2024 draft, finished his Cardinals career with 33 games played, 108 receptions, 1,578 yards and 13 touchdowns.
There is now a known name for Jacksonville’s new long snapper.
Per Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, Jacob Bobenmoyer is signing with the Jaguars.
He’s already on his way to London to join the team.
Bobenmoyer, 29, played three seasons for Denver before spending the last three years with Las Vegas.
Jacksonville’s usual long snapper, Ross Matiscik, suffered a shoulder injury during Sunday’s win over the Eagles. Defensive tackle DaVon Hamilton replaced him, successfully getting the snap down on the team’s game-winning field goal.
The Jaguars will play the Texans in London on Sunday.
The Texans have a couple of injury concerns coming out of Sunday’s win over the Titans.
Head coach DeMeco Ryans told reporters on Monday that both running back David Montgomery (groin) and safety Jalen Pitre (shoulder) are considered week-to-week.
Montgomery has started each of the first five games for Houston this season, rushing for 138 yards on 52 carries with a pair of touchdowns. Second-year back Woody Marks leads the team with 149 yards on 43 carries with two TDs.
Pitre has also started all five games for Houston this season, registering five passes defensed, a fumble recovery and 24 total tackles.
The Texans will be headed across the pond to play the division rival Jaguars in London on Sunday.
The Texans got their first victory of the season on Sunday, beating the moribund Titans, 26-3.
After the contest, receiver Nico Collins talked up his quarterback, C.J. Stroud, who has been putting up solid performances — despite Houston’s current 1-4 record.
“That dude is hooping,” Collins said, via transcript from the team. “Everything that is happening right now is the work you put in throughout the week. Coming in leading, as he always does.
“We always got his back a thousand percent of the way and it’s only right to continue to keep going, continue to be us, and continue to be 1-0.”
Stroud’s first touchdown of the day came on the ground, as he ran it in from 2 yards out midway through the third quarter.
“That man got a little speed on him,” Collins said. “He got in that thing, and I am proud of him. I am happy to see him touch paint, run his feet. He lowered his shoulder, it’s football.”
Stroud later fired a 9-yard touchdown to Jaylin Noel. He ended the day 26-of-34 passing for 261 yards with a TD.
In five games this season, he’s completed 64.3 percent of his throws for 1,402 yards with six touchdowns and no picks.
On Sunday, the only No. 18 in Arizona was in the stands; receiver Marvin Harrison didn’t play — and presumably wasn’t even in the building — one day after the mysterious half-report emerged from Adam Schefter and Ian Rapoport of ESPNFL that Harrison would be traded to a team to be named later.
It’s possible that they both knew the destination and agreed to not report it; as one source explained it to PFT, some of the #insiders (and possibly Schefter and/or Rapoport) knew Harrison had hired agents last month for the first time in his career but kept that news under wraps for as long as possible in order to ensure the effort to get Harrison traded would happen without a widespread sense of a potential Arizona fire sale emerging and, in turn, complicating the Cardinals’ effort to get value for Harrison and Harrison’s effort to get out of Arizona.
Fast forward to one of the most bizarre trade reports in recent years, if not ever, and the question is whether the two teams were still haggling as of Saturday or whether the deal was in place. And whether the door was open for another team (or more) to get involved.
Although the facts are very hard to completely uncover (the simple fact that Cardinals G.M. Monti Ossenfort and Texans G.M. Nick Caserio spent 14 years together, from 2006 through 2019, working for Lord of Secrecy Bill Belichick is the obvious reason for that), it appears that a deal was fully in place before Sunday, and that both teams wanted to delay the announcement until after they played their games on Sunday.
The Texans didn’t fully cooperate in that regard. At the end of his postgame press conference, Texans coach DeMeco Ryans (who was never a member of the Belichick hive) blurted it out after being asked about Harrison multiple times.
The Cardinals game, which kicked off at 4:25 p.m. ET, hadn’t ended. It hadn’t even started.
So why not announce it on Saturday? As best we can tell, the goal was to not create a distraction before Sunday’s game — more for the Texans than for the Cardinals, especially since the word was out that the Cardinals were trading Harrison out of town.
If the deal wasn’t already done, there was no reason for the Cardinals to not wait and see whether another team that had yet to play (up to and including the Monday night game between the Bills and Rams) would develop a sudden need for Harrison due to an injury and make a better offer for the fourth overall pick in the 2026 draft. But the Cardinals didn’t wait until the dust fully settled on Week 5. Which alone points to a conclusion that the deal was done before Sunday.
Then there’s the reality that Harrison must still pass a physical. While that’s usually a technicality, it’s a technicality that kept Maxx Crosby in Las Vegas after the deal was announced that would have sent him to Baltimore. Given that Harrison has been playing this season, there’s no specific reason to think he’ll fail the Texans’ physical. Still, it’s not completely done until the doctor(s) provide the official thumbs up.
As to the haggling, it was apparently done before Sunday’s games even started. But the fact that the information was partially reported served only to create confusion among those who consume the news, leading to the inevitable tinfoil-hat suspicions that someone was trying to make a little money in the prediction markets.
Word that the Cardinals were planning to trade wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. broke on Saturday morning and word that they had agreed to a deal with the Texans came just as the Cardinals were starting Sunday’s game against the Lions.
That game did not go well for Arizona. The Lions got out to a 31-7 lead on their way to a 45-21 win that led to questions for head coach Matt LaFleur about whether the Harrison situation was a distraction for the team.
LaFleur said he does not believe it was a distraction and that the Harrison situation was “not why we didn’t play well.” LaFleur declined to delve into things like whether Harrison wanted to be moved, how the Cardinals came to the decision to trade him or why Harrison failed to blossom in Arizona after being drafted fourth overall in 2024.
“I’m not gonna totally get into that right now,” LaFleur said, via Theo Mackie of AZCentral.com. “I really like Marvin Harrison. He’s a good person. I wish him well. We did what we thought was in the best interest of the Cardinals. Any guy that does not play to the level I feel like they’re capable of, I’m always gonna put that on me and coaching in general.”
The loss was the Cardinals’ fourth straight since beating the Chargers in Week 1, which tends to support LaFleur’s feeling that the problems plaguing the team go beyond any distractions that Harrison’s situation might have provided over the last couple of days.
Coach DeMeco Ryans twice declined to answer questions about whether the Texans had completed a trade with the Cardinals for wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. The third time, as he was concluding his postgame news conference, Ryans confirmed the trade.
“You guys wanna know, huh?” Ryans said, smiling. “Yes, we traded for Marvin Harrison. See ya.”
The move reunites Harrison with quarterback C.J. Stroud, who played with the wide receiver at Ohio State. Harrison played sparingly his freshman season with the Buckeyes but had 77 receptions for 1,263 yards and 14 touchdowns in 2022 with Stroud as his quarterback.
“I think he brings a dynamic playmaker, somebody who runs great routes and can catch pretty much any ball,” Stroud said after the Texans’ 26-3 win over the Titans. “I’m super excited to get to work with him. I loved him in college. He’s probably the hardest worker I’ve ever been around in my life, and then there’s who he is off the field. He’s a great dude, a quiet guy, but you definitely feel his presence.
“I’m excited to get him here, get him learning and get him around the other guys. I think it’s perfect for him. Fresh starts are good, so I’m excited to have him with us.”
Harrison, who was inactive for the Cardinals on Sunday with the trade looming, has five catches for 85 yards and a touchdown this season. The 2024 first-round pick has 108 catches for 1,578 yards and 13 touchdowns in his career.
