Less than 24 hours ago, Arizona Cardinals GM Monti Ossenfort put a public damper on trade rumors involving Marvin Harrison Jr.

But as of Saturday morning, the expectation is that Harrison will be dealt. We do not yet know where, although a deal to the Houston Texans feels like a strong possibility. We do not know the compensation, but it sounds like something in the neighborhood of a second-round pick.

In any event, the deal is not expected to be finalized until after Sunday, allowing the Cardinals to, in theory, garner as much value as possible. Harrison has, however, been informed he will be inactive for Sunday’s game against the Lions, Jordan Schultz has reported.

Clearly, Harrison never lived up to the No. 4 overall pick in Arizona. His production and confidence seem to be at an all-time low.

Harrison has only caught five passes this season for 85 yards and one touchdown on 13 targets. Rarely has QB Jacoby Brissett looked his way.

It simply hasn’t been enough; rather, it’s been a worsening of the concerning trend from both 2024 and 2025, this time under a new playcaller in Mike LaFleur. Harrison has caught just 108 passes for 1,578 yards and 13 touchdowns in 33 career games over two-plus seasons.

And yet, it’s difficult to not view this as a baffling, potentially future-altering mistake by a Cardinals regime that has done everything but succeed over the past four seasons.

Cardinals’ Marvin Harrison Jr. trade looks like mistake right away

The Cardinals are, essentially, selling low on a player who has not produced through four games. But it’s not as if — despite the disappointment of his previous seasons — Harrison has never made an impact on the field. There have been flashes of greatness, muddled by lackluster route trees, poor offensive playcalling and supbar QB play.

Certainly, it hasn’t looked good this year. But Arizona isn’t playing good football at all. Brissett has not played well in recent weeks. The Cardinals aren’t willing to give Harrison a chance to produce with either rookie QB Carson Beck or a potential highly-drafted 2027 class passer. That feels irresponsible.

Instead of doing everything they could to put Harrison in a position to succeed, the Cardinals are giving up on a talented — albeit unproductive — player in year three. They’ve pointed to the production of Michael Wilson and Trey McBride as reasons for a lack of box-score-filling performances from their former No. 4 pick without actually explaining why the ball never goes Harrison’s way.

Arizona is sending out a top-five pick for draft compensation, despite a recent history of unproductive draft selections by Ossenfort. A first-round pick is a quality asset, but not a guarantee. A day-two or day-three pick are closer to lottery tickets than surefire NFL contributors.

And, considering Ossenfort is 16-39 as GM, there’s an ever-increasing likelihood that he won’t be the one utilizing the very pick for which he sold an untapped-potential player.

Shouldn’t it say something that other teams are lining up to trade for Harrison, even when the numbers he has produced have not been worthy of even a day-two pick? Shouldn’t Harrison’s development have been more of a priority? Shouldn’t the Cardinals have done this in the offseason, if this was the intention?

In an era of Cardinals football where on-field wins have been few and far between, this is another holistic loss. There’s far more potential for this deal to haunt Arizona in the coming seasons than for this to turn into a shrewd move by Ossenfort.

Of course, it’s possible Harrison simply does not have what it takes to live up to his draft position. It’s possible whatever draft asset Ossenfort recoups can turn into an elite player. In the NFL, anything can happen.

But even if you disagree about the trade itself, Harrison’s story stands out as a failure on the part of the Cardinals. His draft position, lack of development and poor production suggest the Cardinals found a way to miss on a can’t-miss prospect, and now face the risk of seeing him produce elsewhere.

If that potential is realized on another team, may the football gods help us.