2024 NFL Draft profile: Scouting Marvin Harrison Jr.

Even if you don’t closely follow 2024 NFL Draft talk this early, odds are you’ve heard about Marvin Harrison Jr.

The son of the Hall of Fame wide receiver of the same name, the Ohio State star has also developed into quite the talent at that position.

What exactly does Harrison do well, though? Are there reasons to think he won’t be the can’t-miss prospect a lot of analysts tab him as? Let’s explore this by breaking down the consensus top wide receiver in the 2024 NFL Draft.

Games scouted: vs. Georgia, 2022; @ Notre Dame, 2022; vs. Western Kentucky, 2023: @ Indiana, 2023; vs. Youngstown State, 2023; vs. Maryland, 2023

Strengths

• Tremendous size at 6-foot-4 and 205 pounds
• Has a large catch radius with his long arms and his coordination attacking the ball in the air
• Accomplished collegiate wide receiver who was an unanimous All-American as a sophomore
• Intelligent and efficient route runner who sells route concepts very well
• Does a good job of attacking a defender’s blind spot through his stems and his explosiveness coming out of his breaks for a taller receiver is quite good
• Identifies soft spots against zone coverage well and he exploits them by adjusting the depth of his routes to make himself a security blanket for his quarterback
• Offers intriguing deep speed especially for his size
• Has soft hands and is consistently able to make catches away from his frame
• Showcases good creativity after the catch
• Improvises well on broken plays

Weaknesses

• Crispness in terms of short-area burst could still improve
• Doesn’t have elite lateral quickness after the catch which could make him just an average YAC threat at the next level

Summary

When you think of the top wide receiver prospects to enter the NFL Draft in the last 10-15 years, you think of Ja’Marr Chase. You think of Jaylen Waddle, DeVonta Smith, A.J. Green and Julio Jones. If you want to go far back enough, you’ll even think of Calvin Johnson.

Harrison belongs in that conversation.

While I’d hesitate to say he’s at the level of Megatron coming out — that’s a genuinely generational combination of size, speed and route running acumen — Harrison is every bit as good of a prospect as Green and Jones both were back in 2011. His father excelled as a smaller, craftier route runner, but the son is much larger and has his own unique style of play.

An intriguing combination of size, speed, hands and football IQ, Harrison projects as a WR1 at the NFL level and an immediate contributor to whichever team drafts him. It feels like nitpicking going over his weaknesses, because he’s just that good. The potential is there for him to flirt with 1,000 yards as a rookie and eventually develop into an All-Pro wide receiver. He seems to be a top-10 lock for the 2024 NFL Draft at this point, and a top-5 selection seems like it could be likely, as well.

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