Arizona Cardinals camp: How serious is Marvin Harrison Jr.'s knee injury?
Marvin Harrison Jr. is dealing with knee soreness, Arizona Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon said before practice on July 31.
Although it kept Harrison out of practice, the injury did not sound particularly concerning, based on Gannon’s description.
“He’s OK,” Gannon said. “Kind of day-to-day. Gonna be smart with him.”
Still, it’s worth monitoring. Harrison has been among the Cardinals’ training camp standouts, as he aims to improve on an 885-yard, eight-touchdown rookie season. This period is crucial as he continues to build on his rapport with Kyler Murray.
Harrison has not dealt with much injury trouble in the past.
He didn’t miss a single game in his college career at Ohio State. Last season, he sustained a concussion in Week 6 against the Green Bay Packers but was able to play the following week. The only other time he popped up on the injury report was with a quadricep injury ahead of Week 4 against the Washington Commanders.
Gannon said that offensive linemen Valentin Senn and Jake Curhan are also dealing with minor injuries. Both players are mired on the depth chart and do not figure to be a significant part of the Cardinals' early-season plans.
Here are some more takeaways from the Cardinals' seventh day of training camp:
Why Garrett Williams has a new role
Gannon essentially confirmed that cornerback Garrett Williams will have a new role in the defense this year.
He will play outside cornerback in base defense, which is when teams only have four defensive backs on the field (as opposed to the five-DB looks that are now most common in the NFL). Even in the Cardinals' other packages, Williams could see some opportunities at outside corner, opening up a role in the slot for Dadrion Taylor-Demerson.
The Cardinals’ most common defensive look will still likely feature him at nickel with Max Melton and Will Johnson on the outside.
But last season, Williams played almost exclusively as a nickel cornerback, with occasional snaps at safety. He saw just 11 snaps on the outside. That meant that Williams was off the field for 23.7% of the Cardinals' defensive plays (excluding the one game he missed to injury).
The problem: Williams is among the Cardinals' best players. In fact, Pro Football Focus graded him as the team’s very best player on defense.
“(Last year), I just kinda thought, we got one of our better players coming out of the game in base,” Gannon said. “And it's like, do we want him coming out of the game? So that was a reason that you see him playing a little more outside right now.”
Gannon offers high praise for Isaiah Adams
In training camp press conferences, there are two types of praise. There are stock answers — “he’s ascending” is one of Gannon’s favorites — and then there’s genuine praise.
On July 30, Gannon went out of his way to heap the latter on Isaiah Adams, the second-year guard who is stepping into a starting role.
“Isaiah had a hell of a day — a hell of a week last week, honestly,” Gannon said. “He probably won the day on (July 29). He was the All-Star of the day, I thought. Just through team periods, through one-on-one, through individual, played extremely well.”
Later in his press conference, Gannon used a question about left tackle Paris Johnson Jr. to praise Adams again. He said that Adams spent last week working on adding new tools to his pass-blocking repertoire and that he has excelled with those new tools.