Marvin Harrison Jr. Traded To Texans: What It Means For Fantasy Football

It’s time for a fresh start.

After multiple NFL insiders felt the need to hide the destination all day Saturday (we knew along, Schefter), it was DeMeco Ryans who broke the news on Sunday afternoon. The Houston Texans acquired Marvin Harrison in exchange for a 2027 second-round pick. It’s pretty shocking that it has gotten to this point for the former top-five overall draft pick, but now he’ll get to start over, this time catching passes from his college teammate C.J. Stroud. Harrison Jr. has obviously been a massive bust from both a real and fantasy football perspective, but can a change of scenery lead to a rejuvenation for the former top prospect?

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Marvin Harrison Jr. Fantasy Football Value After Trade To Texans
 

Following a 5-catch, 85-yard, 1-TD stat line across four games, many fantasy rosters cut ties with Harrison Jr., who is now rostered in 79% of Yahoo leagues. He’ll have to adjust to a new scheme on the fly, but any offense should be more conducive to fantasy points than Arizona’s. The Cardinals have essentially used MHJ as primarily a field-stretching wideout to start his career, limiting his consistency on a weekly basis. Since 2024, Harrison Jr. has run go routes 22% of the time, while lining up on the perimeter the majority of the time. His rookie year in particular was laughable, as the Cardinals didn’t scheme their top draft pick targets, instead, relying on low percentage back shoulder fades. Over the past two years, Harrison Jr. has the third-most targets on back shoulder go balls in all of football. 

I’d like to think the Texans have better plans for Harrison, especially after giving up a second round pick to add him. And they do have Kayshon Boutte who they can send on go routes 30-plus percent of the time. An uptick in any sort of in-breaking routes would go a long way towards MHJ becoming a viable FLEX play in PPR formats. For the short-term, Harrison Jr. should immediately pass Xavier Hutchinson as Houston’s WR2, and given this team’s struggles to run the football right now, the Texans could throw the ball more than people think the rest of the way. If he was dropped, I’d add him in all 12-team formats, hoping he can turn things around. But this is still Nico Collins’ passing game, so expectations should be tempered.

Michael Wilson & Kendrick Bourne Fantasy Football Outlook

For the Cardinals, not much changes. Michael Wilson has been operating as this team’s WR1 for weeks, operating in the Puka Nacua role in Mike LaFleur’s offense. An already concentrated offense becomes even more concentrated, though Kendrick Bourne does become a lot more interesting in deeper leagues. He’ll be a full-time player the rest of the season and upon this writing, is having a solid game against the Lions (4-62-0).