Marvin Harrison Jr. a tall order for Bears' secondary
Marvin Harrison Jr. was the wide receiver who was going to make a quarterback out of Justin Fields.
The son of Hall of Fame wide receiver Marvin Harrison was pegged as a ‘‘generational’’ NFL talent as a sophomore at Ohio State. ESPN draft guru Mel Kiper Jr. said Harrison would have been the No. 1 overall pick if he had been in the 2023 draft, when quarterbacks Bryce Young and C.J. Stroud went first and second. That’s how good a prospect he was.
Harrison was a dream target of Bears fans as the 2024 first-round pick the Bears received from the Panthers looked more and more like it would land in the top five. With DJ Moore and Harrison how could Fields fail?
As it turned out, that never was going to be. The Bears were determined to get a quarterback in the draft once the 2023 season ended, and when the first-round pick from the Panthers became No. 1 overall, drafting Caleb Williams was a virtual lock. And the Bears were sold on Rome Odunze as a wide-receiver prospect, so moving up to get Harrison wasn’t an option.
Instead, Harrison went No. 4 overall to the Cardinals — the first non-quarterback taken after Williams, Jayden Daniels (Commanders) and Drake Maye (Patriots) went first, second and third. Now the Bears — and their fans — will get a firsthand look at how he’s doing when they play the Cardinals on Sunday in Glendale, Arizona.
Harrison hasn’t been an immediate sensation, but he still has shown glimpses of why he was so ballyhooed. The 6-4, 205-pound rookie has 26 receptions for 411 yards and five touchdowns in eight games. He’s third among rookie wide receivers in yards.
But it’s only a matter of consistency for Harrison. It’s no coincidence his best games also have been the best games for quarterback Kyler Murray and the Cardinals’ offense.
When Harrison had four receptions for 130 yards and two touchdowns against the Rams in Week 2, Murray threw for 266 yards and had a perfect 158.3 passer rating in a 41-10 victory.
When Harrison had six catches for 111 yards and a touchdown last week against the Dolphins, Murray threw for a season-high 307 yards and had a 116.3 rating in a 28-27 victory.
Therein lies the challenge for the Bears’ secondary Sunday.
‘‘He’s growing as a player,’’ Bears defensive coordinator Eric Washington said of Harrison. ‘‘You see why he was picked where he was, and his confidence has been growing. He’s becoming a person you have to address, that you have to plan for. His catch radius, the speed, the ability to get himself open and be in the right spot so Kyler can get the ball out of his hands, we have to make sure we do a good job shadowing him.’’
Except that the Bears don’t ‘‘shadow’’ wide receivers such as Harrison in the football sense of the term. They don’t use their best cornerback to cover an elite wide receiver wherever he goes on the field. So All-Pro cornerback Jaylon Johnson will cover Harrison but not on every play.
That’s just the way the Bears do business. It leaves them susceptible to big games from players such as Mike Evans (six receptions, 171 yards, one touchdown in 2023), A.J. Brown (nine receptions, 181 yards in 2022) and Nico Collins (eight receptions, 135 yards, one touchdown in Week 2). But when your defense is fourth in the NFL in points allowed, it’s hard to quarrel with that strategy.
‘‘We like our matchups with our corners against [Harrison] — all our corners,’’ Washington said. ‘‘Tyrique [Stevenson], obviously Jaylon and any other person we assign to his position. We have to execute and do a great job of making sure we put the quarterback in a position where he’s not real sure what we’re in, so we can let the rush be effective.’’