The Ohio State football program develops receivers at a rate no other college program does. They are consistently the program that produces the best receivers. They have had a receiver picked in the first round of the NFL Draft in each of the last four years, something no other program has done.
Marvin Harrison Jr. was one of those receivers, being taken fourth overall in the 2024 NFL Draft. He was one of the best receivers Ohio State has ever had in terms of sheer talent, winning the Biletnikoff Award during his final season with the Ohio State Buckeyes in 2023.
Since being drafted by the Arizona Cardinals, Harrison Jr. has not dominated the NFL as many expected him to. He was expected to walk right in and be the number-one receiver in Arizona. Instead, he has had a nightmarish start to his pro career, highlighted by a horrible play on Thursday night.
Former Ohio State football player Marvin Harrison Jr. has horrendous play on Thursday Night Football
Harrison Jr. had a terrible play in the first half against the Seahawks that epitomizes his pro career thus far. After Kyler Murray threw a perfect laser to him on a slant route, he bobbled the ball in the air and let it be intercepted by the Seahawks. Take a look at the play below.
PICKED! Ernest Jones IV with the @Seahawks 2nd INT of the game
— NFL (@NFL) September 26, 2025
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This is just one of the bad plays Harrison Jr. has had in his pro career. For whatever reason, his success in college hasn't translated to the NFL yet. He still has plenty of time to fix it, but it doesn't look good so far. Perhaps he should have worried more about his game and less about his jersey rights as a rookie.
Harrison Jr. has way too much talent to continue to play like this as a pro. He's going to get out of this mental funk at some point and become a dominant receiver. He's just too good not to. Perhaps some visits to a sports psychologist would help him out in that regard.
Cardinals fans hope that whatever his issue is, he figures it out fast. The Cardinals need to play better football if they want to have any shot of making the playoffs this season. Plays like this one from Harrison Jr. aren't going to get it done.
To Harrison Jr.'s credit, he did have a really nice touchdown catch in this game as the Cardinals came back to tie it before losing on a game-winning field goal. Still, had Harrison Jr. been better earlier, they may have won.