Arizona baseball had won five of its last seven games, which included three road wins, entering Friday evening’s matchup with Kansas State.
Arizona
Former Cardinals WRs Reveal How Arizona Can Fully Unlock Marvin Harrison Jr
Week 1 of the 2024 NFL season was underwhelming for many of the league’s top rookies. Few performances, however, were more underwhelming than that of wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr.
Harrison, the No. 4 overall pick in this year’s draft, had just one reception for four yards in his NFL debut. He was targeted just three times.
After the game, Cardinals offensive coordinator Drew Petzing put the onus on himself to get his potential superstar wideout the ball. And this week, two former Cardinals wide receivers had some advice for Petzing and the rest of the Arizona staff.
Read more: Marvin Harrison Jr. Fantasy Football Owners Won’t Love Cardinals’ Comments on Star WR
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In an interview with longtime Cardinals beat writer Kent Somers, former Cardinals wide receivers Roy Green and Frank Sanders discussed how Arizona could better unlock Harrison. They also urged fans to remain optimistic about their star wide receiver.
“One of the great things he has is a great quarterback,” the two-time Pro Bowler Green said to Somers. “He has all the ability in the world. He’s going to be OK, without question. He’s going to be OK.”
What can Arizona do to get him more opportunities?
“When you have safeties on the backside, those are the guys who had to cover me,” Green said. “Once I get six to seven yards down the field, it’s all about the safety now. With the right play action, he’s got half the field and he’s not going to cover me.
“I think Marvin can do that same thing, particularly with the way we (the Cardinals) are running the football with (James) Conner. Play action is going to give (Harrison) opportunities to make big plays.”
While play action was one solution from Green, Sanders wants to see Harrison go in motion to create some mismatches. Harrison didn’t go in motion once across his 55 snaps in his debut.
“It’s exactly what Dallas is doing with CeeDee Lamb, what Minnesota is doing with Justin Jefferson, what the Raiders are doing with Mr. (Davante) Adams,” Sanders said. “They are putting them in the slot and moving them around consistently. They have them in motion running zip, zang, zoom, zing.
“They are trying to get a mismatch with their No. 1 guy vs. the defense’s nickel coverage or their dime back. But if your offense is not that, then you’re going to be trying to change everything to accommodate one person.”
While it was a disappointing first game for Harrison and the Cardinals, there’s plenty of reason for optimism. Harrison is coming off back-to-back seasons at Ohio State in which he accumulated more than 1,200 receiving yards and 14 touchdowns. He was considered by some to be one of the greatest wide receiver prospects ever.
“Everybody knows he’s a hard worker and he’s going to do what he’s supposed to do,” Green said. “He has a chance to be special.”
Harrison’s next opportunity will be on Sunday in an NFC West battle with the Los Angeles Rams. The Cardinals will likely have made some adjustments to get their talented wideout more opportunities.
More news: Bengals Defender Takes Massive Shot at Chiefs WR Ahead of Week 2 Matchup
In these four-round projections, the Arizona Cardinals don’t get a tackle until the fourth round.
We are just days away from the 2026 NFL draft, and that means some final mock drafts. What direction will the draft take the Arizona Cardinals?
Draft Wire’s Curt Popejoy put together a four-round mock draft for the Cardinals. They go defense early but rebuild the offense for 2026 and moving forward, including landing their potential franchise quarterback.
Cardinals 4-round mock draft
Here are the players in the first four rounds Popejoy projects for Arizona.
- Round 1: Ohio State EDGE/LB Arvell Reese
- Round 2: Alabama QB Ty Simpson
- Round 3: Clemson WR Antonio Williams
- Round 4: Florida OT Austin Barber
What we think of the picks
The Cardinals want to trade out of the third pick and draft a tackle, so not getting a tackle until Round 4 seems unlikely, although they did meet with Barber. They do have options at right tackle for 2026 already on the roster.
Reese would be a great pick if they don’t trade back, as they badly need pass-rushing help off the edge.
Drafting Simpson seems inevitable at this point, so it has to be in a mock draft, although the feeling is they will need to go up into Round 1 again to get him.
Williams has speed and is almost six feet tall, but he does have short arms.
Get more Cardinals and NFL coverage from Cards Wire’s Jess Root and others by listening to the latest on the Rise Up, See Red podcast. Subscribe on Spotify, YouTube or Apple podcasts.
Due to significant injuries to the CB position last year which includes a shoulder surgery for Terrion Arnold, the Lions CB position scored a 6/10 need on my Lions Defensive Draft Need Rankings. Thus, an early-round selection of a young, healthy prospect like Keith Abney would not come as a surprise. He enters the draft with very low medical concern level.
Here is the excerpt from my medical report on Keith Abney:
(Ages in parentheses are at start of 2026 season and are factored into the concern level. Injury info and ages based on available public information are unverified and subject to update. Games played data courtesy of sports-reference.com.)
Keith Abney, CB (21) – Arizona State
Projected round 2-3. #43 on Jeff Risdon board Feb 19.
Concern level 0/10
There is an isolated report of a hand injury but no corroborating information. Even if the hand injury is true, that’s of minimal to no long-term concern.
His availability in his final two seasons has been perfect. Overall, Abney appears to be medically clean and is at an excellent age.
He finished college with 6 INT and 21 PBU.
For more Lions coverage, follow us on X, @TheLionsWire, and give our Facebook page a like. Follow Jimmy on X, @JimmyLiaoMD
In the first game of the series, Arizona (14-23, 5-11 Big 12) battled in a low-scoring affair but fell short in a 2-1 loss to Kansas State (24-12, 8-8 Big 12). The Wildcats from Tucson held the Wildcats from Manhattan at bay for a good majority of the night.
Given that Kansas State leads the Big 12 in conference play in batting, on-base percentage, and slugging, Arizona had a rather good performance, but it was not enough.
Owen Kramkowski pitched seven scoreless innings before allowing the first Kansas State run in the top of the eight. He finished with six strikeouts and kept the high octane Wildcats at bay.
“I thought the defense played well behind him too,” said head coach Chip Hale. “There’s a lot of ground balls, and we made plays where we were positioned in good places, and he was pitching in the eighth inning. That’s unbelievable.”
Garrett Hicks (3-1) came in to try and stop the bleeding for the Wildcats and did so by not allowing Kansas State to take the lead in the eighth. It was in the ninth when the lead was surrendered.
It took until the sixth inning but the first run was scored by Arizona. Andrew Cain singled to left field and after Maddox Mihalakis flew out, it was Beau Sylvester bringing Cain home with a triple through right center field.
Sylvester extended his hitting streak to eight games and it proved to be not enough to get Arizona to the finish line.
Kansas State tied the game at the top of the eight when back to back singles got runners on at first and third. Then a passed ball allowed the third base runner to come home.
Arizona had a chance to retake the lead in the bottom of the ninth after Cain singled to deep right field. With Sylvester back at the plate, it seemed like it was a perfect set up.
A wild pitch nearly got past Kansas State and Cain tried to take advantage of it and steal home. However, Kansas State was able to corral the pitch and get Cain out at home.
AJ Evasco started the ninth inning with a double for Kansas State and back to back fly outs eventually got him home to give Kansas State the lead and the win.
With eight players being left on base, Arizona will need to bring those runners in more often than not if they want to tie the series Saturday afternoon.
As a young team, the Wildcats have had to walk a very tight line between disappointment and dejection and will need to continue handling these losses with grace if it wants to turn a corner.
“It’s the way it goes, it’s baseball,” said Hale. “If we don’t handle it, we will come out tomorrow and won’t be ready to go, so hopefully they handle it.”
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