Did Marvin Harrison Jr.'s Hall of Fame pedigree cause NFL evaluators to overlook a major concern?
The 13 Personnel crew reexamines Harrison's NFL Draft evaluation and asks whether his father's legendary career created assumptions about the Cardinals receiver's mentality and development.
Video Transcript
You know one flaw that we always talk about in scouting, guys, that, like, it might actually lead us to our, our last conversation here, is that Marvin Harrison was deemed as this, like, high floor player because, as you mentioned, Austin, his dad's a Hall of Famer.
Yeah.
And if you remember Marvin Harrison Sr., I'm not sure if Easton does 'cause he's super- No, I, I- young, so, like, I don't know if he remembers Marvin Harrison that well.
I've seen him.
I can't say I remember him, but I've seen him.
Mar- so Marvin Harrison, Easton, was about 6', 180 pounds.
He was fast, but he won because he was detailed as hell.
Like, great- route runner, great hands.
Like, that was his style, right?
And I think that a lot of people looked at, and myself included in this, when you looked at Marvin Harrison and saw the detail of his route running at Ohio State, you assumed, "Oh, that's his dad with three pl- with three plus inches and 30 plus pounds."
You're like, "Oh, that, that is- You heard it over and over a Hall of Fame player."
Like, no doubt about it.
Yeah.
But the question is, did that bias of knowing who his dad is, did that paint a false picture in your mind of the mental aspects of Marvin Harrison Jr., the confidence aspects of Mar- Marvin Harrison Jr., the love of football?
Like, we don't know any of those details well enough.
Only the scouts and himself know these things well enough to know if that picture is true or not.
But I'm here looking back on, like, my scouting process and saying, "Did I give him too much of the benefit of the doubt that his, his mentality is the same as his dad just 'cause I know his dad was such a pristine worker and great technician?"
During that draft cycle, if you turned on any draft show debating the top of the receiver group, and to this day if you turn on any pre-season, pre-fantasy draft fantasy show talking about that range of receivers, you will hear that question, which is if he was not Marvin Harrison, but was Marvin Jones, if it was just some dude that was really good in college- Marvin Jones is a guy.
Yeah, just, yeah.
Mar- Marvin Jones was also good, which is funny.
He was a pretty good player.
I, I, the second I said it, I realized it, too.
Yeah, really funny.
If he was- Marvin Smith, come on.
He- If he was Marvin Gerard, I don't know, some guy that's not real, that is just some dude that was really good in, in college, but he, he did not have that pedigree, did not have that reputation, would we feel the same way about him as we did Malik Nabers in that same draft?
Would we feel that same way?
I mean, I was listening to a fantasy show the other day talking about how they weren't sure whether or not Marv or Michael Wilson should be one peg above the other in their, like, big board fantasy rankings.
And, like, well, one was- Mm-hmm a top five draft pick, elite in college, Hall of Fame dad, Maserati Marv, cool nickname, great aura, and then the other was better at football last year.
So it's like what do you- Yes better with fantasy football at least, so what do you do with that?
And I don't know.
Yeah.
I don't know.
I, I, a new nickname for me is, Marvin the Martian, because he's just out there spacing out when the ball's in the air.
But- That's crazy.
That's crazy.
It's pretty good.
But no, but, but I think, like, Marvin Harrison Jr., but again, like the whole pedigree thing, is that we- Yeah he's al- his dad's always been his dad.
We've always known that.
He was a big recruit, went to the school, and then was the guy.
I still think Ohio State wins that game against Georgia if Marvin Harrison Jr.
Doesn't get knocked out in the back of the end zone.
And- Possible he became the guy at Ohio State, and then was the guy that So every time along the checkpoints, he's passed, right?
And then now it's just- Yeah whatever the hell.
I, I find myself second-guessing my process with it because I'm even thinking back, 'cause I, I'm a purist, guys, with some things.
I think wide receivers need to be loudmouths.
Like, I think they need to.
I think for the most part, they need to have that little bit of a weird aura to them, and they need to be a little bit diva-ish most of the time.
I mean, not everybody can be Larry Fitzgerald, obviously.
