Stroud urges team to take Harrison
The Arizona Cardinals need a bona fide No.1 wide receiver. With the fourth overall pick in next week’s NFL draft, they are in the perfect situation to select one considering quarterbacks are expected to go first, second and third in front of them.
If the Cardinals are serious about landing a receiver, the choice should be obvious.
According to Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud, it can only be his former teammate at Ohio State, Marvin Harrison Jr.
“Whoever’s up there, man. be smart. Don’t be dumb,” Stroud told Houston area reporters Monday when asked if he thought Harrison should be the first receiver taken in the draft.
Harrison Jr. has long been projected as the most likely candidate to go to the Cardinals at No.4, but in recent weeks there seems to have been a slight shift in sentiment in various NFL circles. The draft’s top two other wide receiver prospects, Malik Nabers from LSU and Rome Odunze from Washington, have been gaining more and more traction.
Part of the reason for that seems to come from the presumption that Nabers and Odunze have more explosiveness to their game and can generate better separation from NFL defensive backs than the 6-foot-3, 209-pound Harrison Jr., the son of Pro Football Hall of Famer Marvin Harrison Sr.
Stroud, the NFL’s Offensive Rookie of the Year last season, isn’t buying it. He said Harrison, the only receiver in Ohio State history to record two 1,000-yard seasons, is the best of the bunch and he challenged any NFL executive to prove him wrong.
“Put on the tape,” Stroud said. “He’s done it from really his freshman year, his true freshman year, to now.”
Harrison is the reigning Biletnikoff
Award winner, a two-time All-American, and a Heisman Trophy finalist. He had 14 receiving touchdowns each of the past two years and leaves Ohio State with the sixth-most receptions (155), sixth-most receiving yards (2,613) and third-most touchdown catches (31) in program history.
“I think I read something like he’s NFL ready, but other guys have more potential,” Stroud said. “That makes no sense. Like, what? If you’re ‘NFL ready,’ how is that not potential? You want longevity, you want somebody who’s been doing it. For him, that’s what he sleeps, eats and breathes.”
Stroud said Harrison demonstrated all of the tangibles a generational talent needs to possess, including real leadership skills. Harrison proved that, he said, especially when Jaxon Smith-Njigba was sidelined for the majority of the 2022 season with a hamstring injury.
“I challenged him that year when Jaxon went down,” Stroud said. “He had to take over as a leader and he did that. He’s not real vocal, but he became vocal, and you can see his personality start to come out as he started to play more.
“For me, I would love to play with him again. I probably won’t get that opportunity for a while, but I’m super proud of him. Whoever’s up there, man, be smart. Don’t be dumb. Don’t think too hard.”
About the only way the Cardinals don’t select a wide receiver at No.4 is if General Manager Monti Ossenfort were to accept a trade package from a quarterback-needy team willing to part with serious draft capital to move up for J.J. McCarthy from Michigan.
As many as four teams could be interested in making a deal — the Giants, who hold the No. 6 pick, the Vikings, who hold picks Nos. 11 and 23, the Broncos, who pick No. 12, and the Raiders, who pick No. 13.