It’s essentially a flip of a coin whether or not you’ll see some of your favorite players compete in the preseason. Nowadays, NFL teams often take a more conservative approach when it comes to their star players, opting to keep them sidelined for the majority — if not the entirety — of the preseason to give them the best chance possible to enter the regular season healthy. After all, veterans are a relatively known commodity. Rookies, however, are a little bit more of a mixed bag, so there is more of a chance they do suit up to dip their toe into the NFL waters, which appears to be the plan with Marvin Harrison Jr. in Arizona.
While the Cardinals have yet to make a definitive announcement on who’ll play in the preseason, head coach Jonathan Gannon believes it’d benefit Harrison to play.
“I think he needs to get out there and play,” Gannon told reporters, via AZCentral.com.
While some players don’t necessarily want to take part in the exhibitions, Harrison wants to enter the fray telling reporters, “I definitely want to play, get out there, always compete.” In fact, the promising young wideout believes that there should be a preseason at the collegiate level.
“Honestly, I think there probably should be preseason games in college,” Harrison noted. “I think people should take advantage of that a little bit more. College, they only play 12 games, so two extra games of preseason won’t hurt. But hopefully I get a chance to go out there and compete.”
Harrison was the No. 4 overall pick at the 2024 NFL Draft out of Ohio State and, given his lineage as the son of a Pro Football Hall of Fame wideout, enters the league with a ton of fanfare and hype. For the Buckeyes, he was a back-to-back unanimous All-American and won the Fred Biletnikoff Award in 2023, which is handed out to the most outstanding wide receiver in college football. With that skill in mind, it shouldn’t take Harrison much time to get acclimated to the NFL, and a few showings during the preseason should help him hit the ground running come Week 1.
