Is the pairing of Kyler Murray and Marvin Harrison Jr. awkward?

Rich Hriber and Matt Harmon of Sharp Football Analysis believe it is, and we can discuss their reasons why

Rich Hriber and Matt Harmon of “Sharp Football Analysis” make some well-supported points about what they perceive to be an awkward pairing of WR Marvin Harrison Jr. with QB Kyler Murray.

Here, have a good look (the gist is in first 10-11 minutes of the video):

Key Points:

• Matt Harmon lauds MHJ’s route running and calls him a “craftsman” —- and when he charted MHJ’s routes in 2024, he noticed that, when MHJ was open, too often he was not thrown the ball.
• In 2024, Harmon opined, MHJ was being used like a “sacrificial X WR.”
• MHJ’s best route is the “dig route” —- where he gets consistently open —- but, too often, “Kyler Murray can’t see him.”
• MHJ had only 4 ‘in-space” receptions in 2024 —- which was bottom five in the NFL —- and put MHJ in a “sacrificial X WR” category with Mike Williams, D.J. Chark and Kenny Golladay.
• “Back shoulder throws are not really a strength of MHJ’s game.”
• In the Miami game, during the prep week, Kyler asked MHJ what routes he would prefer to run that week and it worked because Marv was getting the ball more over the middle —- “yet, they rarely did it quite like that again for the rest of the year.”
• “Against the popular 2 high safety coverages in the NFL today, “you don’t beat that defense by dinks and dunks, you beat it by passing over the linebackers and deep middle.”

Reception Perception:

Some folks like since61, SunDevil99, Kurt Warner and I have been trying to challenge the perception amongst fans that “the Cardinals’ WRs aren’t getting open.”

With that in mind, I went ahead and purchased a year’s subscription to Matt Harmon’s website: receptionpercetion.com

Here are Matt’s charts on 2024 Marvin Harrison Jr.:

Marvin Harrison Jr. 2024 Player Profile | Reception Perception

Success Rate by Route (getting open) —- Rate Percentages (of his 62 receptions)

• Flat Pass: —- 80% success —- 1.9%
• Comeback: —- 87.5% —- 3.0%
• Out Pass: —- 74.1% —- 10.0%
• Corner Pass: —- 80% —- 5.6%
• 9 Deep Pass: 51.2% —- 15.5%
• Post Pass: —- 84.2% —- 7.1%
• Dig Pass: —- 87.5% —- 24.1%
• Curl Pass: —- 75.6% —- 15.4%
• Slant Pass: —- 81.6% —- 14.3%
• Screen Pass: —- 100% —- 0.4%

*Overall, Marvin Harrison Jr. had a good rookie season. He displayed the strengths of his game as a route runner and even if it’s not the best use of him long-term, held up while playing the most difficult role you can thrust upon a wideout. What “went wrong” in his rookie season can’t be isolated to just one variable and every major party deserves some slice of the blame. In order for him to take the next step in the production department, the coaching staff needs...