All you need to know about why Arizona Cardinals should draft 'Maserati' Marvin Harrison Jr.

Arizona Cardinals General Manager Monti Ossenfort should get a Maserati.

Ohio State wide receiver “Maserati” Marvin Harrison Jr. should be available when it’s time for Arizona to make a selection in the upcoming NFL draft, and the pick couldn’t be more important to the future of the franchise.

Get it right, and Arizona fans might actually start rooting for the Cardinals. Get it wrong, and season-ticket holders will continue to make small fortunes selling their stubs to out-of-towners.

Arizona has its franchise quarterback in Kyler Murray. Other than that, there’s nothing certain about the roster moving forward.

Here’s a guide to take you through all the things Ossenfort will need to consider between now and the time the Cardinals go on the clock.

QUESTION: So who is this guy?

ANSWER: Harrison is the best wide receiver in college football. (Although, don’t tell that to Tetairoa McMillian or anybody else in Tucson, unless you want to fight.)

Harrison was a finalist last season for the Biletnikoff Award, which goes to college football’s top receiver. This year, he might win it.

Of course, he’s a junior. Who knows? Maybe the Buckeye boosters can scrape together enough NIL money to get the guy back in Columbus for one more season?

NFL mock draft: Marvin Harrison Jr. (almost) everyone's pick for Arizona Cardinals

Q: He’s got a famous name. Is his dad who I think he is?

A: Yep. Marvin Harrison Sr., the Hall of Famer who was Peyton Manning’s favorite target for about a decade with the Colts.

From what I can tell, Harrison Sr. had a big influence on his son’s game.

“He just instilled in me from an early age: Take football very seriously, take anything that you do very seriously,” Harrison Jr. told GQ magazine. “I have a love for the game and want to go out there and perform the best that I can and help my team win.”

Q: Harrison Jr. is big, but can he move? Or is his nickname “Maserati” Marv just because it sounds cool?

A: Harrison Jr. is fast. The Athletic has reported that Harrison said he expects to run a 4.3 40-yard dash, but that’s not an “official” speed until he does it at the combine.

Reel Analytics, however, tracked him at 22.2 mph in a game back in September. For context, the fastest player clocked in the NFL this season, according to NFL NextGen Stats, is Tyreek Hill, who hit 22.01.

Q: OK, so he’s fast. But how do we know he won’t be a bust?

A: Great question, especially from Arizona fans who’ve been told that guys like Josh Rosen and Isaiah Simmons were going to be stars.

First of all, we don’t know that Harrison Jr. won’t be a bust. He very well might. Wide receivers are notoriously tricky to predict.

I’m old enough to remember the Detroit Lions drafting receivers with top-10 picks in four of the five drafts between 2003 and 2007. One of those guys, Calvin Johnson, went to the Hall of Fame. The other three … well, didn’t.

I like to evaluate a guy’s work ethic and mindset. For that, I can’t stop thinking about what OSU coach Ryan Day told ESPN recently: “Many times,” Day said, “the more talented you are, the harder it is to develop discipline and skill. And when you take somebody who has a lot of talent, who has a lot of discipline, that’s when you have Kobe Bryant. And you look at (Harrison Jr.), he’s got a lot of talent. He’s got a tremendous amount of discipline.”

College coaches always talk up their guys, but if that’s even halfway true, Harrison Jr. is going to be a player to re-Mamba.

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Q: Can the Cardinals get him?

A: Have you seen this team play? They’re so bad, the NFL should change its rules to award Arizona the top 10 picks in the draft every year until they reach .500.

In all seriousness, the Patriots and Panthers are the only teams with records as bad or worse than the Cardinals. (The Panthers pick will go to the Bears from a trade, but we’ll stay out of that zoo for now.)

If Kyler Murray so much as gets a hangnail, Clayton Tune will be Arizona’s starting quarterback, and we all saw how that went a few weeks ago in Cleveland. Top pick, here we come!

Let’s assume, for the sake of discussion, that the Cardinals end up with the No. 3 pick.

It looks like the Patriots need a quarterback. So, the worst-case scenario is that the Cardinals would have to trade up a spot to get Harrison Jr.

Arizona has a lot of draft picks and some decent players on the roster, so a trade is a legitimate option.

The other worst-case scenario, I guess, would be Harrison Jr. looking at Arizona and deciding he’d rather go back to school for his senior season — but there’s no guarantee that the Cardinals wouldn’t be in position again to take him with the top pick in the 2025 draft.

Q: OK, sounds like you’ve thought this through. But can the guy play?

A: Don’t ask me. Ask Penn State. The Nittany Lions had one of the nation’s top pass defenses when Harrison roared past with 11 catches for 162 yards and a touchdown.

Or ask Michigan. Harrison went for five catches and 118 yards and a touchdown against the pumpkin-eating Wolverines (Get it? Because they suspended their coach after a cheating scandal?)

Q: What if Ossenfort isn’t sold. What are his other options?

A: There are plenty. He has an entire roster to rebuild. He could always trade down for more picks, but if I were in the room advising Ossenfort, I’d tell him to go get the Maserati, then ask any other scout in the room to steer him in a different direction.

NFL mock draft: Arizona Cardinals take surprise quarterback with first pick

Reach Moore at gmoore@azcentral.com or 602-444-2236. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @SayingMoore.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Marvin Harrison Jr. should be Cardinals' top target in NFL draft