Where Does Marvin Harrison Jr. Rank Among Generational Wide Receiver Prospects?
The Ohio State Buckeyes star is lighting up college football—and NFL draft boards. He entered the 2023 season with plenty of hype; he’ll enter the pros with even more.
With Caleb Williams and Drake Maye as the headliners, quarterbacks will dominate the 2024 NFL draft discourse—but a wide receiver might be the best all-around player in this upcoming class. Ohio State’s Marvin Harrison Jr. is that good, bringing an extraordinary combination of size, athleticism, route-running savvy, and ball skills to the Buckeyes offense. The son and namesake of the Hall of Fame receiver, Harrison is all but a lock to be taken in the top 10 in next year’s draft, and he could go much higher.
If you haven’t been watching much college football this year and are just now starting to turn your attention to the draft, now is as good a time as any to introduce you to one of the most talented players in college football. Let’s dig into the stats and tape of a guy who’s already being touted as one of the most exciting pass-catching prospects of the past decade, and take a look at how Harrison stacks up against some of the best college receivers of the past 20 years.
Harrison’s pro-ready skill set was on full display last weekend in Ohio State’s 20-12 win over Penn State, where despite frequently lining up across from cornerback Kalen King (another highly rated draft prospect), he finished with 11 catches for 162 yards and caught the game-sealing touchdown late in the fourth quarter. Harrison has gone over 100 yards in five out of seven games this season, and now sits at 42 catches for 766 yards and six scores—putting him on pace for a 72-catch, 1,313-yard, 10-touchdown stat line over the team’s 12-game regular season (not counting a bowl game or potential College Football Playoff appearance). That’s exactly the type of encore performance he’ll be hoping to sustain after putting together an incredible 2022 campaign, when he was named a unanimous All-American after catching 77 passes for 1,263 yards and 14 touchdowns.
But even if Harrison fails to exceed his lofty numbers from last season, NFL teams are going to be absolutely enamored of his talent. A four-star high school recruit from Philadelphia, Harrison combines elite length (he’s listed at 6-foot-4 and 205 pounds) with twitchy, explosive movement skills. He checked in at no. 2 overall in Bruce Feldman’s 2023 College Football Freaks List in August thanks to his impressive weight room numbers (he reportedly bench presses 380 pounds and squats 500 pounds), explosive leaping ability (he broad jumped 10 feet, 8 inches), and change-of-direction quickness (he ran the short-shuttle drill in 3.94 seconds). Harrison told The Athletic that he plans to run somewhere in the high 4.3-second range in the 40-yard dash at the combine.
That high-end athleticism shows up on tape. Harrison explodes off the line of scrimmage, getting out of his stance and to top speed quickly, and has shown the ability to easily cruise past defenders. He tracks the ball beautifully and can adjust to passes. He’s a field stretcher that defenses need to be aware of at all times.
Harrison is also surprisingly creative with the ball in his hands, particularly for someone so tall. He’s elusive in tight quarters, showing the burst and acceleration to make defenders miss, and he has the straight-line speed to run away from pursuit angles in space.
Harrison’s more than just a speedster, though. Despite his tall, slender frame, he’s remarkably strong at the catch point, regularly winning contested situations and boxing out opponents. He gives his quarterback a big target to throw to. And he completes tough catches through contact and holds on to the ball.
The thing that stood out to me the most on Harrison’s tape, though, is his nuance as a pass catcher. Some guys are just bigger and faster than everyone who defends them—and that’s typically true for Harrison—but Harrison brings incredible concentration, body control, and refined hand technique to the actual catching of the football. He twists to grab passes that come in behind him; he goes low to scoop passes before they hit the turf; he catches the ball away from his frame with soft mitts; he pirouettes in the air and then lands seamlessly to move upfield without losing a step. He’s both powerful and graceful.
Harrison elevates his quarterback. He comes back to the ball. He finds openings on scramble drills to keep plays alive. He tracks off-target throws. He even works hard as a blocker, getting his hands on opponents to wall them off from a play. He’s not perfect—he has dropped a handful of passes this year, and like any taller receiver he can sometimes struggle to drop his hips and quickly change direction. But overall, he projects exceedingly well to the NFL game. Harrison is almost surely going to be the WR1 of this class and, overall, one of the most highly sought-after players in the 2024 draft.
Watching Harrison’s tape, I stopped asking myself how high he might go in the 2024 draft and started asking how he stacks up against some of the best receiver prospects of the past two decades. With so many different types of offenses in college football, we can’t rely purely on stats to make comparisons. And with receivers coming in so many shapes and sizes, we can’t just look solely at physical traits. But if you’re looking for some historical comps that could contextualize Harrison’s imminent NFL draft hype train, a few guys come to mind.
The most recent would probably be former LSU star Ja’Marr Chase, who was selected fifth in the 2021 draft by the Bengals. Chase was a little bit of a project as a prospect because he really produced only one season of elite numbers in college before sitting out the COVID season in 2020 and then declaring for the draft. Still, his 2019 campaign was an absolute all-timer. Chase was a unanimous All-American and the Biletnikoff Award winner for the national champion Tigers that year, reeling in 84 passes while leading the country in receiving yards (1,780) and touchdowns (20). Chase was and remains a pure power- and explosion-based receiver; he’s not an elite separator, but he’s just so strong both before and after the catch that it doesn’t really matter. I think Chase dissolved most worries about how a year off from football would affect his game when he absolutely blew up his pro day, running a 4.34-second 40-yard dash while posting elite agility (3.99-second short shuttle drill) and leaping (41-inch vertical) numbers at a robust 6 feet, 201 pounds. He’s now, obviously, one of the best receivers in the game.
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Going back a little bit further, it’s easy to forget just how strong of a prospect Amari Cooper was. The Alabama star racked up a ridiculous 227 catches for 3,462 yards and 31 touchdowns in three seasons as a starter for the Tide, with his best season coming in 2014. He won the Biletnikoff Award and finished third in Heisman Trophy voting that year after catching 124 passes for 1,727 yards with 16 TDs. With good size (6-foot-1, 211 pounds), elite route-running skills, and outstanding athletic traits (4.42-second 40, 3.98 shuttle, 6.71 three-cone), Cooper was an all-around talent and went fourth to the Raiders in the 2015 draft. NFL.com’s Lance Zierlein actually compared Cooper at the time to none other than Marvin Harrison Sr. Cooper hasn’t reached superstar status in the NFL, but he’s a four-time Pro Bowler with more than 8,000 receiving yards on his résumé.
Sammy Watkins didn’t have as illustrious a career as some of the other guys on this list but was a highly rated receiver prospect nonetheless. A super-explosive playmaker, Watkins tallied 240 catches for 3,391 yards and 27 touchdowns over three seasons at Clemson, putting together his best season in 2013 by racking up 101 catches for 1,464 yards and 12 touchdowns. He capped his college career with a 16-catch, 227-yard performance in the Orange Bowl. After he ran a 4.43-second 40 at the combine at 6-foot-1 and 211 pounds, the Bills made him the fourth pick of the 2014 draft. Things haven’t gone exactly to plan for Watkins in the pros, and he’s struggled with injuries for much of his career—but he has played nine seasons and tallied more than 5,000 yards and 34 touchdowns.
A.J. Green was a phenomenal prospect who played three seasons at Georgia (2008 to 2010) and totaled 166 catches for 2,619 yards and 23 touchdowns in 32 games. His best year was his 57-catch, 848-yard, nine-touchdown line as a junior—and combining that with a strong combine performance (he ran a 4.48-second 40 with a 6.91 three-cone, 4.21 short shuttle, and 34.5-inch vert at 6-foot-4, 211 pounds), he was selected by the Bengals with the fourth pick in the 2011 draft. Green went to seven Pro Bowls and racked up more than 10,000 receiving yards in his 11 pro seasons.
That same class featured Julio Jones, who was a legendary prospect. A five-star recruit who ranked as the no. 1 receiver in the country coming out of high school, he was unrivaled in pure explosive athleticism. Jones was a three-year starter at Alabama and tallied 179 catches for 2,653 yards and 15 touchdowns in college, posting 78 catches for 1,133 yards and seven scores in his final season (2010). He wowed NFL evaluators by running a 4.42-second 40 at the combine while posting elite agility (6.66 three-cone, 4.25 short shuttle) and leaping numbers (38.5-inch vert, 11-foot-3-inch broad jump), all despite testing with a broken bone in his foot. The Falcons were especially enamored and traded five picks to the Browns to move up to no. 6 in the 2011 draft to take him (giving up their 27th, 59th, and 124th picks from the 2011 draft, plus their first- and fourth-round picks from the 2012 draft). Jones more than lived up to his draft billing, with more than 13,000 receiving yards and counting in his career (he’s currently 16th on the all-time list).
We can’t make this list, of course, without highlighting both Calvin Johnson and Larry Fitzgerald. Johnson racked up 178 catches for 2,927 yards and 28 touchdowns over three seasons at Georgia Tech, winning the Biletnikoff Award as a junior after grabbing 76 catches for 1,202 yards and 15 touchdowns. To this day, Johnson remains one of the most impressive athletes to ever play the sport and has achieved almost mythical combine status thanks to his 4.35-second 40-yard dash time, which he achieved at 6-foot-5 and 239 pounds. Johnson was the second pick in 2007, and, well, the rest is history. He’s 38, and he’s already in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Fitzgerald, meanwhile, was ludicrously dominant for Pitt—he posted 92 catches for 1,672 yards and 22 touchdowns as a sophomore—and successfully petitioned the NFL to enter the draft after just two seasons with the Panthers (he had left high school early to enter Valley Forge Military Academy, which satisfied the third year of post–high school eligibility). Fitzgerald was selected third by the Cardinals in the 2004 draft and would go on to become one of the most prolific pass catchers of all time. An 11-time Pro Bowler, he ranks second on the NFL’s career receiving yards list, with 17,492, trailing only Jerry Rice.
Putting this list together does two things: First, it gets me excited for draft season—and for finding out where Harrison will inevitably land. And second, it should serve as a bit of a heat check for what’s sure to be an incredible amount of hype around the Buckeyes’ star receiver over the next six months. There’s always a temptation to compare college prospects to some of the game’s best players—and I frequently do just that—but, man, even just writing down a few of the accolades for guys like Johnson and Fitzgerald acts as a figurative bucket of cold water.
I’m definitely not ready to put Harrison in the rarefied air occupied by the likes of Johnson and Fitzgerald. But by both the eye test and most statistical and athletic measures, Harrison has done more than enough to etch his name on the list of the most impressive receiver prospects of the past 20 years. Stylistically, he reminds me a little bit of both Chase and Green. He’s similar to Green in that he’s tall, slender, and unbelievably smooth as a downfield playmaker, possessing a natural feel for getting his feet inbounds, but he’s so much stronger and more physical than Green, and that’s where Chase comes to mind. Harrison has some Chase-like flashes in the way he outmuscles opponents at the catch point and can win with pure, explosive speed—both before and after the catch.
But what’s cool about Harrison is that there’s not one really strong one-to-one comp among all the vaunted prospects listed above. He brings a unique combination of size, athleticism, and skills to the table, blending raw power with finishing finesse. And apart from his name, he’s also completely different from his diminutive Hall of Fame dad—at least right up to the part when he’s catching the football. The bottom line is, of course, that he does that very well. And I can’t wait to see Harrison play on Sundays.
