Marvin Harrison Jr. trade: Cardinals send former top-5 pick to Texans for multiple draft picks

The Arizona Cardinals’ divorce with 2024 No. 4 overall receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. is happening. Arizona is trading the 24-year-old, along with a 2027 seventh-round pick, to the Houston Texans for a 2027 second-round pick and a 2027 sixth-round pick, according to ESPN. The Texans head coach confirmed the trade Sunday, after 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 circulated this weekend that a trade could be imminentand now Harrison will get a fresh start after his time with the Cardinals didn’t go as planned.

Texans quarterback and Harrison’s former teammate at Ohio State, CJ 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, I think he’s a great player and I’m excited to have him here.”

The Texans were one of the top teams in conversations surrounding a Harrison trade, largely because of the wide receiver’s connection with Stroud. The two played together at Ohio State in 2021 and 2022. On Saturday, as trade rumors took over the league, Aditi Kinkhabwala of CBS Sports spoke with Stroud about Harrison.

“(Stroud) told me (Harrison) was incredibly talented, he told me he was a great teammate, he said he always believed in what he could do. And he also said he was one of the hardest workers he’d 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, 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 receiving yards and a touchdown. His five catches are tied for sixth in Arizona, behind All-Pro tight end Trey McBride (33), wide receiver Michael Wilson (25), wide receiver Kendrick Bourne (13), rookie running back Jeremiah Love (11) and running back Tyler Allgeier (10). During his career with the Cardinals, he totaled 108 catches for 1,578 receiving yards and 13 receiving touchdowns despite having 202 targets, the third most on the team since 2024. He was behind only McBridge (362) and Wilson (241) in targets during his young career.

The Texans need another wide receiver to emerge for Stroud, in addition to two-time Pro Bowl 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 receiver since Ahmad Rashad in 1974 to be traded in his first three NFL seasons after being selected in the top five of the NFL Draft, according to CBS Sports Research. Rashad was also traded by the Cardinals and 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 4 in the last 10 years. 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 Atlanta Panthers in 2023). Caroline in 2021).

Darnold, the reigning Super Bowl champion, is the only player on the roster to have real success in his career after his initial trade, although it took many stops to get there.