INDIANAPOLIS -- Marvin Harrison is either: A) the best wide receiver in the NFL; B) the league's most underrated wide receiver; C) the NFL's Most Valuable Player; or D) all of the above.

Take your pick. You couldn't possibly go wrong with any of those selections. After all, it's not a huge stretch to consider the Colts' Harrison as the most complete wide receiver in the league. Statistics don't lie.

The top receiver in the league after his fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh seasons. The most receptions by an NFL receiver from 1999-2002. The most receptions of any receiver from the talent-rich '96 draft, which included the likes of Keyshawn Johnson, Terry Glenn and Eric Moulds. You name it, and Harrison either already has done it or is not too far from doing it.

	Harrison leads the NFL with 109 receptions.

Unfortunately, few people outside the league fully appreciate just what the former Syracuse All-American has accomplished over the past five seasons, and what he's still doing every weekend.

It would be easy to describe the quiet and unassuming Harrison as a reluctant superstar. And it would be largely true. He does not go out his way to tout his own skills. But then again, he doesn't feel like he needs to. The proof is in the performances he exhibits on a weekly basis.

"He's special. He just makes it look so easy," Colts head coach Tony Dungy admitted recently. "I watch him in practice, and I'm more awed in practice than I am in a game. You see it day after day, you really expect it on Sunday.

"The more I'm around him, the more I guess I understand what most of the country has been missing for five years. He's just a guy who makes great plays week in and week out. He'll get open, and it looks effortless, but it's not."

But what makes Harrison so darned good?

"No. 1 is pure athleticism, which you need to compete at that position," Dungy said. "But No. 2, he's an extremely smart player. That's probably the ingredient that most great players that I've been around have -- they understand the game so well.

"He's as good at his position as anybody I've been around. It's probably hard for fans to see that, but it's just how he comes back and talks about how defenders are playing him, what we need to do, moving him around and putting him in different spots. They're subtle moves he makes to get open. He really does have the total package. But his intelligence is outstanding, which is really the difference between being good and great in this league."

Brains and a blue-collar work ethic coupled with outstanding athletic skills. A complete understanding of what's going on every minute that he's on the field. Is that the answer to Harrison's seemingly Houdini-like ability to get open on a consistent basis against single, double and often times triple coverage?

"Marvin is very meticulous," Colts offensive coordinator Tom Moore points out. "He's a very hard worker. He comes up with the little nuances to help him beat people. In my book, Marvin's a true professional. He's a guy that wants to be the very best at his position, and he's willing to do what he has to, to be the best."

That meticulous attitude meshes well with quarterback Peyton Manning, who is a bit of a stickler for details himself.

"With all the different defenses teams put in, you might call a play that's a great man-to-man play, but if they're playing zone, it's horrible," Manning says. "Literally, you've got no chance. You have to adjust. Marvin's the only guy I can go to for that.

"That's what I tell the young receivers. If you want to get the ball in games, you've got to get open like Marvin in practice. Marvin works really hard in practice, he doesn't want to come out."

	“	I do what I've been doing since I stepped foot here in Indianapolis. I go out and play. I don't go out to try to show up another guy. I go out to do what I know how to do, and that's make plays. ”
		— Colts WR Marvin Harrison

Manning and Harrison have been in sync since the two joined forces in '98, hooking up 494 times for 56 touchdowns. It's a pass-and-catch combination that ranks among the best in league history and promises to get even better as time goes on.

"We both see the same thing," Harrison has acknowledged. "I think that's what makes Peyton and me that much better together. We both see the same thing before it happens."

That synergy with Manning has made Harrison one of the most dangerous and feared receivers in the NFL. And for good reason.

"I do what I've been doing since I stepped foot here in Indianapolis. I go out and play," Harrison said. "I don't go out to try to show up another guy. I go out to do what I know how to do, and that's make plays.

"Tom Moore says you never know which play is going to be the big play in a game. It doesn't matter what kind of coverage it is. If my play is called, I know it's up to me. I've just got to get it done."

"My mentality is, move the chains, move the chains, move the chains," Harrison stressed. "Sometimes that's all they give us; they're going to play us deep. That gives us the short stuff underneath, and it's my job to break it. I've just got to keep taking five yards, five yards, five yards.

"Sooner or later, the big one's going to happen. Some teams think all we do is throw a lot of big passes. And maybe one year we did throw a lot of deep balls. But we've got to be patient, which I have been. When people play so deep, you've got to be patient because the big plays will come."

That attitude has made quite an impression on the likes of teammate Troy Walters.

"I was around some great receivers in Minnesota, like Cris Carter and Randy Moss," Walters said, "but Marvin just day in and day out is a professional. He goes out every day, gets the job done and doesn't say a whole lot. You can count on him. You know what he's going to do, and it's usually marvelous things."

Colts Hall of Fame receiver Raymond Berry, generally acknowledged as the greatest receiver in franchise history, has said that he sees a lot of himself in the way Harrison exhibits himself on the field.

"When I see Marvin play, I see a guy who's thinking football and keeping his mind on the game and not being a showboat," Berry said. "I'm just glad to see a guy like him in the position he's in because he's a real credit to the game."

Tom James covers the Colts for the Terre Haute (Ind.) Tribune.

Material from Pro Football Weekly.
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