Harrison Jr. blocking out noise amid slow start for Cardinals

TEMPE, Ariz. -- Arizona Cardinals receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. hears and reads what's being said about him after his slow start to his third season, but he remains confident and still has the confidence of his teammates.

Harrison, who has one catch for 33 yards on four targets through two games, said Wednesday that he's not surprised by the reaction to his slow start, but said it hasn't been difficult to keep his confidence high. He didn't hesitate when asked where the level of it is, saying he has "a lot of confidence in myself."

"Does your confidence come from results or does your confidence come from your process?" Harrison said. "And I think for me it comes from my process. So, my process isn't going to change whether I get zero catches or 10 catches. I'm going to still do the same thing week in and week out, Monday through Saturday to prepare myself for games. So, I think that's where I have a lot of my confidence comes from.

"And obviously you want to have more of an impact in the game, but I think confidence really has to come from preparation more than anything."

Quarterback Jacoby Brissett said Wednesday that "nobody has lost confidence in Marv" despite his start, while Harrison didn't shy away from the reality, citing a number of reasons.

"It's definitely a combination of a lot of things," Harrison said. "For my route tree getting down the field, you need a lot of things to go right. You need the right coverage, you need protection to hold up, you need me to run a great route, you need obviously Jacoby to make the right pass and make the right read. So, I feel like it's never one person's fault for anybody's success or lack thereof, really.

"So, I think it's always a combination of a bunch of things and whether that's a lack of success or success in general."

Another reason, Harrison said, is because of the two defenses he's played this season. The Los Angeles Chargers gave him single coverage on just seven of 32 routes and the Seattle Seahawks are, simply, one of the best defenses in the NFL.

"Pretty much that simple," Harrison said. "Seattle's a really good defense and you don't want to give a lot of teams, especially a rival team, a lot of credit. But when you just look across the league, they're far beyond above everybody else, especially on the defensive side of the football. So, things like that happen."

Brissett said the two have had "good conversations" and has tried to lend an ear to Harrison whenever he needs it.

"It's easy to say, 'Oh, it's a long season' to other people, but to Marv it doesn't feel like it's a long season," Brissett said. "As a teammate and as a quarterback, you still have to be there for him because what if this week goes the same way? Am I just going to not be there? It's a new week and that's the benefit of it being so early in the season that you have multiple weeks to hopefully be out there and just be able to do better."

Brissett, an 11-year veteran, added that a hard part for young players such as Harrison is dealing with the outside noise. Harrison admitted that he sees and hears things about himself on social media and tries to block it out.

"You see everything," Harrison said. "I'm not going to sit here and say I don't see nothing or you get told to, 'hey, block out the noise and not pay attention to it.' Yeah, that's part of it. You can still see some of the stuff, block it out.

"I see everything and everybody's entitled to their own opinions, and you get platforms to kind of speak your mind and that's OK with me. So, I'm going to continue worry about my team and my process and helping the team win the best we can."

Harrison said sticking to his process, which includes catching balls off the Jugs machine in the morning and after practice in the afternoon, helps him not let the outside chatter affect him.

Still, fellow wide receiver Michael Wilson sympathizes with his teammate.

"I definitely feel for him," Wilson said. "Obviously, I have social media, just like everyone else. I couldn't imagine how that feels every time you open up social, it seems like it's just negative talk about Marv. And I think speaking from my relationship with him, there's no one that's a bigger Marvin fan than myself. I think so highly of him as a player and person and I think people, we all like to overreact over such a small sample size of games."

Even coach Mike LaFleur sees it. He said Harrison seems like the same guy to him, but he understands what's being said about the former Ohio State star.

"I'm not going to sit here and act like I don't know the narrative going on," LaFleur said. "I mean, this is the league and naturally stuff gets across my desk but in between those walls, Marv is Marv. He's attacking it every single day like he always does and just like his teammates do, I appreciate the way he goes about his business."

Brissett said he told Harrison that he's as frustrated for him as Harrison is himself, but also said he believes Harrison's start is being made into something bigger than it actually is.

"Is some of the noise justified?" Brissett said. "I don't think so, personally. We just signed Mike for [$25 million] and nobody said anything about him having two catches. I think people try to find somewhere to make something out of nothing. The only thing you can do is just go out there and just continue to get better as a teammate of him and him as an individual, and I think that's what we're doing."

But Harrison wasn't surprised by the reaction to his slow start.

"No," he said. "I mean, I understand who I am and what I was expected to do when I got drafted here and all the expectations that were put on me and I think people want certain production. So, when that's not happening, everybody's going to ask questions or figure out why is that the reason?

"And, so, I wouldn't say I'm surprised by anything that's talked about me anyway."