TEMPE — There’s confidence that comes from the Arizona Cardinals keeping the status quo on offense from last year to this one, Marvin Harrison Jr. said.
The offseason of transactions was headlined by three free agent signings in Josh Sweat, Dalvin Tomlinson and Calais Campbell, before Arizona selected defensive players with six of its seven draft picks.
On offense, the biggest moves have been James Conner and Trey McBride getting locked in long term, the team saying with actions it believes in the trajectory of the pieces on that side.
“I’m very confident in what we have offensively from top to bottom, the quarterback, the line the skill positions,” Harrison said Monday of if he sees the doubling down. “I definitely think we have everything we need to be able to go out there and accomplish the goals that we have.”
He said those goals include a home playoff game and, more simply, winning more than the eight games the Cardinals did last season.
It appeared the unit was taking steps down the stretch, with three of its five 30-point performances on the season coming in the last four weeks. It was topped off by a season-high 47 points in the finale.
Harrison said a natural progression will come from the comfort of his second year in the league.
“Obviously, for me it being a new system last year just kind of (made me say), ‘OK, what route do I have?'” Harrison said. “Now, ‘OK, what’s the defense? It might be last in the progression, you might be first in the progression.’
“How do you win a route based on that thing instead of just, ‘Okay, I have a dig, I’m gonna run a dig now.’ Hopefully, that’s kind of the next step that we’re taking right now.”
He’s hopeful that with the game slowing down, a more cerebral approach will lead to better production.
“(Understanding) why, what’s the defense doing, where am I going to catch the ball, catch spot, just all those different things. Where am I going to attack with the ball after I catch it?” Harrison said of his thought process now.
“So just thinking about all those different concepts before, you know, I think that’s the next step for me just being more comfortable playing the game too.”