and Mar boings Arizona Sports the local sports leader bigley blast First Impressions will not matter if Marvin Harrison Jr eventually follows his father into the Pro Football Hall of Fame but they couldn't have been worse in Arizona a debut where Maserati Marv was more like moped Marv and that is because his top speed against the bills was 16 .7 mph and that is staggeringly slow by NFL standards in fact that speed ranks 1,699 out of 1730 wide receivers since the beginning of the 2023 season and remember this is the same wide receiver who clocked out at 22.2 milph on a touchdown against Youngstown State a time that was faster than anybody in the NFL last season so what gives clearly Marv is swimming to run that slow is a sign of a young player who is locked up between the ears a player who is really seeing real NFL speed and violence for the very first time and maybe in their rush to see and sell a prized rookie to their fan base Cardinals did not recognize his lack of comfort or Readiness because to their credit most of the other Cardinals were crisp and sharp and ready for battle ATT so now the trick is for the coaching staff to get this prized rookie ready to be an impact player Sunday against the Rams because there is no way this passing game or this group of wide receivers can Elevate without that happening good news is Marv can only get better and he certainly can't get any slower all right today's vickle blast brought to you by my great friends at Chapman BMW who make luxury attainable find them online at Chapman bmw.com yeah definitely um especially in college a lot of game fans defensively were Take Me Away um you know we had a lot of success at Ohio State obviously you know running the ball and having different um know weapons kind of still get the victories and um continue do a better job Arvin Harrison Jr of the Arizona Cardinal speaking with the media in front of his locker yesterday talking about uh if there are games where the ball doesn't find him uh and look that does happen it happens to the best receivers a lot of people scrambling doing research on you know disappointing debuts and uh you you you mentioned his Hall of Fame father Marvin Harrison who's by the way incidentally his first NFL game was against the Arizona Cardinals September 1st 1996 wow six catches 85 yards and a touchdown there were it it can happen there were any number of of football pundits who had picked Marvin Harrison Jr to have a huge Breakout game in week one that's how hyped this young player happened to be those speed numbers that I that I cited in the blast um as I said as the analytics begin to pour out of week one in Buffalo I I I do think that that when you look at what went down on that field and what went down on that second half and why Marvin Harrison Jr did not get targeted I think you can find your answer right there because that number is indeed by NFL stag standards staggeringly slow and we know he's not low and we don't think he's hurt so what is it well for a young player it's you just we've heard the tale a million times from rookies who who you can't play Fast if you're thinking too much and if you're thinking too much you're not comfortable and you're not ready because you haven't experienced it before you can get on a soap box and I know a lot of cardinals already have and question the Cardinals training camp methodology and what they did by putting him in bubble wrap I in real time understood the logic I UND the idea that why would you expose a rookie this important to reps with a backup quarterback if you're not playing Kyler Murray then maybe in hindsight the solution would have been limited reps with Kyler Murray to at least establish something with Marvin Harrison Jr you can't go back and change that now and and to the Cardinals credit be before people get too crazy with this to their credit most of the team was remarkably ready to play yeah there were a lot of NFL offenses that were CL in around the yard in the first half on Sunday that wasn't the Cardinals and for full games as well and for full games but this wide receiver room kind of questionable to begin with we all love Mike dorch all of us we all love him we all love him the well it w it was a wide receiver room that they needed guys to step up essentially for the first time they needed a rookie receiver to be a a wide receiver one they needed a rookie from last year to be wide receiver two and they needed a role player guy to be a solid wide receiver three right so when you're asking all these wide receivers to sort of all step up it's a lot to ask and and it's one of the needs in which the cardinals elected not to spend because they did have drafted players that they want to be those guys right here and now now it's it's a little bit different than the D line and it's a little different than the cornerback room but but I do think if Marvin Harrison Jr does need a a long buildup then this offense is really going to struggle cuz because you're going to get teams that are just going to stack the box and and and and all that kind of stuff so doesn't but doesn't it seem like what they're saying at least in the aftermath of the Buffalo game that that's indeed the case this is going to take some time which to me sounds highly disappointing right because you had time and you chose not to use it in preseason games and again I'm not questioning that methodology I've long been in that camp doesn't mean you don't question what you're doing I question what what I'm doing all the time whoops and and the speed of how he how fast he ran in that game has to be affected by the routes that he ran you know like a a straight you know hell Mary kind of Route you're obviously R sprinting if you ran a lot of short routes or ran a lot of like decoy routes that that'll impact how fast he was running I would think yeah but I'm also I'm I'm also curious because but that's his top speed J yeah the the top a low speed that's a top speed the top speed numbers I I'm curious what other routes look like I don't like I you don't normally see the top speed clocked on a route because it's it's after the catch kind of stuff no you're right and and and it's kind of a false equivalency for me to mention that he was clocked at 22.2 that's with the ball in his hands racing to the end zone they're two different things I I grant that but I also I but I want to illustrate the big difference between those numbers and and so look I I just think that it's this is a sign of a guy who's got a billion things going through brain trying to figure out what to do what and and all that and I I'm just hoping it was just a bad debut cuz they do need him now yeah they budgeted for him to be wide receiver one right now Kyler Murray talked about how much time does he think it'll take uh take to develop a chemistry on the field with Marvin Harrison Jr is that time something that is like a short amount of time a long amount of time like how how do you kind judge that or no I mean um are you going to try it Sunday yeah I mean obviously we want to get him more touches that's not you know that's not a secret you know but I I don't want to go Force into you know forcing things for sure you yeah so I I mean when does that come into play though when do you take advantage of the physical skills of Marvin Harrison Jr uh it was a very it was a very patient approach to football especially with number 18 involved from the Cardinals I wonder how much patience runs out and I don't mean that in a bad way like you got this guy you invested a number four pick on him he's your future moving forward let's let's let's unwrap the gift a little bit Yeah I think there's there's going to be some Force feeding going on against the Rams I I wholly expect that because that there there is a balance that you're going to have to find if he's truly that that great of a weapon then then I he's the type of player that warrants that yes thanks for 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