Marvin Harrison Jr.’s run in Arizona was pretty forgettable, but Jacksonville has zero clue what he looks like once DeMeco Ryans starts dialing up plays for him.
That’s the real wildcard the Jaguars are prepping for in Week 6, in their game against the Houston Texans.
“Marvin will play,” Ryans declared on Oct. 14, officially giving Marvin Harrison Jr. the green light just days after acquiring him.
Jaguars Face a Real Challenge vs. Texans With Marvin Harrison Jr.
Facing C.J. Stroud throwing to his old college target is already a headache for the division-leading Jags, but the real issue is how fast Houston is rushing him into action.
He pulled an all-nighter with assistant coach Tiquan Underwood to swallow the playbook, logged a single practice session on Wednesday, and immediately boarded an eight-hour flight to London.
The Texans head coach revealed how Ryans all-nighter went with coach Underwood.
“Getting a player caught up, it isn’t hard when the player is attentive, and he’s locked in on getting the details down. So Marvin’s first night here, he was with our assistant wide receiver coach, Coach Tiquan [Underwood], and they were grinding,” Ryans said of how Harrison Jr. is adjusting.
“They were working late at night. They were in the playbook, grinding, and that allowed him to get a day ahead. Now, he was able to go out there today and just fit right in seamlessly. So, when you put the work in, and you’re dialed in, you can make it work.”
Rushing a newly acquired weapon straight into live fire overseas isn’t standard roster management—it’s the mark of a 1–4 team operating with pure desperation, forcing Jacksonville to defend an opponent whose game plan hasn’t even been put on tape yet.
“Don’t expect him to come in and play all 60 snaps in the game,” Ryans added, further revealing how things would look for Harrison vs. the Jaguars. “We’ll make sure he gets what he needs and make sure he’s confident in what we’re asking him to do.”
Jaguars Need to Watch Out for Texans WR
Whether Harrison plays five snaps or fifty is anyone’s guess. It’s hard to believe he mastered the system in one day, meaning Ryans is likely tossing him out there just to see how he handles real pressure in a completely new scheme just the very week his trade was finalized.
That’s the scenario Jacksonville has to prepare for.
That said, Harrison had a nice first practice session on Wednesday, even leaving the coaches impressed.
“I thought Marvin did a really good job today getting acclimated,” Ryans said of Harrison Jr.’s first Texans practice.
“Coaches have done a great job in the background, just really working with him, getting him caught up to speed on our plays, the verbiage of what we’re doing. He got in, ran some plays today, did a good job.”
Now, that urgency and hard work to get on the same page as this Texans’ offense early seems to already be paying off for Harrison Jr.
For the Jaguars, they will have to defend a guy they haven’t seen in a Texans jersey yet, with zero clue how Houston plans to use him.
Jaguars Just Got Marvin Harrison Jr. Update They Were Hoping to Avoid vs. Texans