The Arizona Cardinals‘ divorce with 2024 fourth overall pick wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. is actually happening. Arizona is trading the 24-year-old, along with a 2027 seventh-round pick, to the Houston Texans for a 2027 second-round draft pick and a 2027 sixth-round pick, according to ESPN. Texans head coach confirmed the trade on Sunday, following Houston’s first win of the year, a 26-3 victory over the Tennessee Titans.
The trade was announced during the Cardinals’ game against the Detroit Lions, a game in which Harrison was inactive due to the pending trade. Rumors swirled over the weekend that a trade could be imminent, and now Harrison will get a fresh start after his time with the Cardinals didn’t go as expected.
Texans quarterback and Harrison’s former Ohio State teammate C.J. Stroud was asked about the trade after his game.
“You want to know more? I don’t know what more I can tell you,” Stroud said with a smile. “I think he’s a great guy, think he’s a great player, and I’m excited to get him here.”
The Texans were one of the top teams in the conversations surrounding a Harrison trade, in large part due to the wide receiver’s connection with Stroud. The two played at Ohio State together in 2021 and 2022. On Saturday, as the trade rumors were taking over the league, CBS Sports’ Aditi Kinkhabwala spoke with Stroud about Harrison.
“[Stroud] told me [Harrison’s] an amazing talent, he told me he’s a great teammate, he said that he still believes in what he can do. And he also said he’s one of the hardest workers he’s ever known … Stroud said sometimes a fresh start can be really good,” Kinkhabwala said.
If Stroud and Harrison can replicate, or even come close to replicating, what they did together at Ohio State, the Texans’ offense will see a dramatic improvement. Harrison set or tied career-highs in receptions (77), receiving yards (1,263) and receiving touchdowns (14) in 2022 at Ohio State with Stroud at the helm.
Harrison Jr. struggled to stand out for the 1-3 Cardinals early in 2026 with five catches for 85 yards receiving and a touchdown. His five catches are tied for sixth on Arizona, ranking behind All-Pro tight end Trey McBride (33), wide receiver Michael Wilson (25), wide receiver Kendrick Bourne (13), rookie running back Jeremiyah Love (11) and running back Tyler Allgeier (10). For his Cardinals career, he totaled 108 catches for 1,578 yards receiving and 13 receiving touchdowns despite 202 targets, the third-most on the team since 2024. He trailed only McBridge (362) and Wilson (241) in targets in the span of his young career.
The Texans need another wide receiver to emerge for Stroud, aside from two-time Pro Bowl wide receiver Nico Collins, with once-promising wide receiver Tank Dell’s career derailed by injury. Dell went down in Week 16 of the 2024 season with a dislocated kneecap, torn ACL, LCL, MCL, and meniscus damage, and he hasn’t suited up since.
Harrison Jr., the son of Pro Football Hall of Famer Marvin Harrison, is now the first wide receiver since Ahmad Rashad in 1974 to be traded within his first three NFL seasons after being selected in the top five of the NFL draft, per CBS Sports Research. Rashad was also traded from the Cardinals and was sent to the Buffalo Bills in exchange for quarterback Dennis Shaw.
Harrison is also now the fifth top-5 pick to be traded before year four in the past 10 years. The others in the same category are quarterback Zach Wilson (traded from the New York Jets to the Denver Broncos in 2024), quarterback Trey Lance (traded from the San Francisco 49ers to the Dallas Cowboys in 2023), cornerback Jeff Okudah (traded from the Detroit Lions to the Atlanta Falcons in 2023) and quarterback Sam Darnold (traded from the Jets to the Carolina Panthers in 2021).
Defending Super Bowl champion Darnold is the only player on the list to see actual success in their career after their initial trade, though it did take many stops before he got there.