Marvin Harrison Jr. had high hopes for his first professional football game, dreaming of spectacular catches, touchdowns, and a win for the Arizona Cardinals.
However, as many players discover, the NFL is rarely like a fairy tale.
Harrison’s debut didn’t go as planned. The No. 4 overall pick from Ohio State had only one catch for 4 yards and was targeted just three times. To make things worse, the Buffalo Bills came back to win 34-28 against the Cardinals.
“Obviously, it wasn’t great,” Harrison said. “It definitely wasn’t what I expected or what I wanted to happen, or what the team wanted to happen.”
The Bills played a big role in Harrison’s quiet game, paying extra attention to him on defense compared to most rookie receivers. He was double-teamed for most of the game, leaving quarterback Kyler Murray with fewer options to pass to him.
Murray wasn’t concerned about Harrison’s limited catches.
“Nothing changes,” Murray said. “We’ve got the utmost confidence in what we’re capable of doing. If you watched the game, I think they did a good job of making sure he wasn’t single-covered for most of the game.
“But I’ll never lose confidence in Marv.”
Second-year coach Jonathan Gannon had a similar outlook: “Yeah, he’ll be fine. Marvin will be fine. He’ll get back at it and go to work, but no one’s going to put more expectation and pressure on him than himself. He’ll be perfectly fine.”
Harrison’s low production in the game led some to question Gannon’s choice to keep the rookie on the bench for most of the preseason. Harrison played only one series in the first preseason game against the Saints, while Murray also sat out all three preseason games.
Harrison mentioned that playing in an NFL game was much more intense than anything he experienced during training camp.
