Where is Marvin Harrison Jr. headed? Inside the mystery surrounding Cardinals' unfinished trade

Early Saturday morning, somewhere pre-7 a.m. local time, the Arizona Cardinals decided they had enough of a trade offer on the table for wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. that they felt comfortable offloading the 2024 No. 4 overall draft pick.

The news of an expected trade of Harrison Jr. was then shared with the wide receiver. It then circulated around the building before news of the impending trade broke open in the media.

Twenty-four hours later, the destination (or likely destination) for Harrison Jr. remains a mystery to everybody outside of such figures as general manager Monti Ossenfort and head coach Mike LaFleur. All that's been shared internally, including among players, is that the Cardinals are trading Harrison, that his time in Arizona is done and that he'll be inactive for the Cardinals' game against the Lions on Sunday.

Some internally, including teammates, think the Texans are a clear top possibility (and CBS Sports can confirm that Houston has been among the teams in contact about Harrison, who was college teammates at Ohio State with Texans QB C.J. Stroud) but sources don't believe that any trade has been officially finalized yet as of Sunday morning.

Even with Houston, league sources outside of Arizona have wondered if anything could change if the Texans fall to 0-5 Sunday when they face the Titans, if other teams are quietly involved and also if another team could ultimately jump in depending on the outcome of the Week 5 games.

What's clear is that the Cardinals, despite Harrison having just five catches through four games, have been hoping for as much as a first-round draft pick if they were trading Harrison and it seemed like the inclusion of a first-round pick would ultimately trigger Arizona to move on from him. Even though it's fair to question whether another team would actually be willing to give up that level of compensation, multiple sources did indicate being under the impression -- without knowing the exact compensation -- that the Cardinals seem poised to receive a strong return for Harrison, who's 24 years old and only two years removed from posting 885 yards and eight touchdowns as a rookie in 2024.

The thought for now among several NFL sources is that Arizona clearly has an offer from at least one team (maybe Houston, maybe someone else) that's good enough and locked in to the point that they were comfortable informing Harrison on Saturday morning that he'll be traded in the coming days.

Now, it's just a matter of who that new team for Harrison ends up being.