TEMPE, Ariz. -- Marvin Harrison Jr. learned this season what kind of toll injuries can take on a player, physically and mentally.
But it wasn't just one ailment that set back the Cardinals' receiver. Or two, for that matter. Harrison dealt with three different injuries throughout the season, in addition to leaving a game because of a concussion. In all, they caused him to miss five games and prevented Harrison from taking the Year 2 jump that was anticipated heading into the 2025 season.
The injuries also led to Harrison feeling like he didn't completely fulfill his second year in the NFL. He finished with 41 catches for 608 yards and 4 touchdowns but didn't have a 100-yard game.
"I feel like [it was an] incomplete season for me, really," Harrison said.
Despite underperforming compared with his rookie season statistically, Harrison felt like he "definitely improved" in areas he focused on in the offseason.
Wide receivers coach Drew Terrell agreed.
"I've seen a lot of progress from Marv," Terrell said. "There's a lot of things that he had to learn in the first year. He's had to adapt his way of thinking about certain things. So, I've seen the biggest change for him probably in his mindset and the way he thinks about football, which has been good. Unfortunately, he's had injuries, but he's had games prior to the injury ... where he's playing a more free style of football. So, I'm encouraged by what he's done in his second year."
The injuries, however, were just too much for Harrison to overcome.
He suffered a concussion during Arizona's Week 6 trip to Indianapolis. Then, a day after the Cardinals' loss at Seattle in Week 9, Harrison was in the hospital because of an appendicitis procedure that sidelined him for two weeks. That was a major blow to Harrison's season, causing him to lose 10 pounds -- about the same amount of weight he put on in the offseason -- and forcing him to go "back to square one a little bit." Harrison said he never had a chance to "really" recover before he had to jump back into football.
He returned from appendicitis with a different demeanor and "a look on his face [like] nobody's covering me today," Terrell said.
"It was very encouraging," Terrell added.
And then, in his first game back from appendicitis at Tampa Bay, Harrison suffered a heel injury that kept him out for two more games.
In a sign to Terrell that Harrison had grown from his rookie year, he said Harrison was "a lot calmer" after his first heel injury than he was after the appendicitis.
"He [was] like, 'All right, there's a lot of things that happened that people will talk about or things that happened and I can't do anything about, so let me just take each day for what it is and try to capitalize on the day,'" Terrell recalled.
After missing two games because of his first heel injury, Harrison returned for two games but left the Week 17 matchup against the Cincinnati Bengals because of an injury to his other heel.
Dealing with that many injuries and fluctuating between the field and the training room wore on Harrison.
"Obviously, been a mental battle," Harrison said. "I never really dealt with injuries before. Obviously, appendix, I can't really control that one at all. It just kind of happened at a bad time and then to injure both your heels is unfortunate, as well, but that's just kind of how the way things work sometimes, but you got to keep pushing forward."
Harrison said rest is the key to his heels healing, but that won't prevent him from taking a break from football mentally early in the offseason.
Heading into last offseason, Terrell said he wanted Harrison to exhale and adopt the mantra of: "I'm Marvin Harrison Jr. I'm a bad mother, and they got to feel me next time I'm out there."
To some degree, Harrison heeded Terrell's advice. But heading into this offseason, Terrell wants much of the same out of Harrison as he did last year.
"There were a lot of moments this year where he had that look on his eye of like, this is what I do," Terrell said.
"So, I think for him, going into the offseason again, much like last year, enjoy the game, enjoy the process and focus on the process in what you can control, not outside noise, because that outside noise is always going to be there, good or bad. You got to treat good and bad the same and stay locked into what you do."