Marvin Harrison Jr. is Perfect Week 2 Buy-Low Candidate in Fantasy Football Trades

Jason Schandl | Sep 11, 2024

Aug 10, 2024; Glendale, Arizona, USA; Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. (18) warms up before facing the New Orleans Saints at State Farm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Joe Camporeale-Imagn Images / Joe Camporeale-Imagn Images

Fantasy football managers are freaking out about Marvin Harrison Jr. Nobody likes to see someone they drafted in the top-20 score 1.4 PPR fantasy points in Week 1. And because of the disappointment, it's been trendy to pile on about his struggles on social media. That's only making managers worry more.

But of course, "the time to buy is when there's blood in the streets." And there's blood a-plenty in the fantasy football streets right now.

Why You Should Buy Low on Harrison After the Ugly Debut

Harrison flopped — loudly and publicly. How about 2.8 million views on a social media post about an ugly route? And 4.4 million on his "NFL debut highlight"?

Another thing getting a lot of run is his lack of "max speed" being called out. But max speed is a pretty terrible measurement in a football game. Generally, players only reach high max speeds when they're running long distances in a straight line. And Harrison was rarely doing that, with most of his routes being in the short to medium range, where we're not expecting to see someone get up to their true top speed.

Consider Harrison's max speed in college (which beat Malik Nabers). Unless you think he's magically lost his elite athleticism, you shouldn't worry about a couple of viral ugly routes.

Of course, I'm not trying to sell you on that debut having been a good one. It was an ugly game all around from Harrison. But great players have ugly games, especially as rookies.

If you thought he was worth a top-20 fantasy football pick before the season, you should still think he is now. And even if you thought the market was a little too high on him to start with, you probably didn't have him that far outside the top 20.

Harrison still led all Cardinals wide receivers with 55 snaps played (Michael Wilson was second at 49 and Greg Dortch was third at 37).

While some impressive rookie wideouts burst onto the scene with huge games, there have been plenty of successful ones who took at least one game to get going. Justin Jefferson hit 1,400 yards as a rookie but turned 3 targets into 26 yards in his debut. Chris Olave eclipsed 1,000 yards as a rookie in 2022 after seeing just 3 targets in his debut.

Would it be more encouraging to see a Week 1 breakout like Puka Nacua had in his record-setting 2023 campaign? Of course. But flopping for one week doesn't suddenly doom Harrison.

If the manager with Harrison on their roster in your league is getting worried and buying into all the memes about his terrible debut, now is the time to try to buy low to get yourself a potential WR1 at a severe discount.