It didn’t take Marvin Harrison Jr. to remind the Arizona Cardinals why they picked him at No. 4 overall in the first place.

After 5 days of being traded, the wide receiver suited up for the Houston Texans against the Jacksonville Jaguars and delivered a performance that easily rivaled his combined numbers in the first four weeks for the Cardinals.

Marvin Harrison Jr.’s Debut for Texans Stuns Cardinals

DeMeco Ryans put Harrison on a strict 12-snap pitch count in London, yet Stroud looked his way four times. That is a ridiculous 33% target rate that yielded three catches for 34 yards, including two tough grabs over the middle.

To put that in perspective, Harrison had managed just five catches total over his last four games in Arizona while logging full-time snaps.

Meaning, Ryans got more productive passing reps out of Harrison Jr. on a jet-lagged 12-snap pitch count in London than Mike LaFleur managed in over an entire month in Glendale.

His familiarity with C.J. Stroud from their Ohio State football days surely helped, but it was much more than that for Harrison Jr.

Stepping into a new system brought out the talent he had hiding in plain sight, proving he just needed a clean reset and an offense that actually gets it.

“Maybe the quarterback, scheme, route assignments, coaching, and overall environment matter too. Maybe there’s more to evaluating a receiver than declaring he forgot how to play football based on a few clips and numbers without context,” Houston Stressans wrote, pointing out a much bigger problem in Arizona.

Cardinals Couldn’t Get the Best Out of Harrison Jr.

In Arizona, Mike LaFleur used him as a cheap distraction instead of actually letting him make big plays. Ryans did the exact opposite by putting him in the middle of the field and actually letting him use his size to make plays.

It also helps that C.J. Stroud doesn’t need Harrison to save the entire franchise on his own. Lined up opposite Nico Collins, Harrison isn’t getting double-teamed on every single snap like he was in the desert.

Houston gave him breathing room, and Arizona took too long to realize he needed that to excel.

The pressure to prove himself in an entirely new offense the same week he was traded did give him the jitters.

“Definitely nervous, but I’m nervous before every game, because I care so much about this game of football,” Harrison said, via the Houston Chronicle, following the win. They vanished just as quickly, though, right after he made the first catch.

“After the first catch, I was pretty good to go. The coaches did a good job of getting me a game plan that I could go out there and execute,” he added.