Cardinals WR Michael Wilson talks opportunity, production and more

A third-round pick in the 2023 draft, Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Michael Wilson has always been viewed as an important piece in the team’s offense and one of the best and introspective talkers on the roster.

His production could always be described as solid, but not much more — that is, until the last two games, when with Marvin Harrison Jr. unable to play, Wilson has exploded with two games that no one (except Wilson) could have ever expected.

Yes, it’s fair to say the amount of times the team has thrown the ball has created numerous opportunities. However, when anyone has a two-game total of 25 receptions on 33 targets for 303 yards is nothing short of eye-opening.

After all, in the first nine games of the season, he was targeted a total of 38 times, catching 22 for 231 yards. Coincidentally, the last two games have lifted his season total to 47 receptions on 71 targets for 534 yards after his totals for all of 2024 were also 47 catches on 71 targets, but for 548 yards. In his rookie season, Wilson had 38 receptions on 58 targets for 565 yards.

In Week 11 against the San Francisco 49ers, Wilson totaled 185 yards on 15 receptions/18 targets and had plays of 25 yards and two for 34 each. His 10-for-118 day Sunday against the Jacksonville Jaguars featured a 31-yard play.

When asked Monday if the opportunities will continue when Harrison is playing again, head coach Jonatha Gannon said, “Yeah. Throw it to the guys who are making plays for you. Absolutely. ... with Marv being out, he has kind of taken over that role of the (No. 1) receiver, and he's gotten open, and he's caught it.”

How has it happened in these last two games? In a wide-ranging media session Monday, Wilson openly addressed everything thrown at him, including the lapse he had with a quick celebration after a big catch in the fourth quarter. There was so much good that we opted to present it all in a Q&A format.

Q: Have you had a chance to digest what happened yesterday? What are your initial thoughts of I guess first just what happened with the team and being so close and not quite doing enough?

A: It's tough because I feel like we played really hard as a team and when you win the turnover battle four to nothing like statistically you should win the football game. And so I feel like that was one of those one-off games where we just didn't capitalize on some of those turnovers and we weren't good in converting on certain field goals and not allowing our kicker to even attempt field goals. But yeah, it was a tough game. Just kind of one of those where you kind of look back and it was like, “Damn, I don't know how we lost that.” But I feel like we've had a few of those this year.

Q: After the last game, you acknowledged that, yes, it's tough to lose, but you were pleased with your own performance. Have you surprised yourself at all with what you've been able to do these two games?

A: Surprised myself?

Q: Like, I know you have high expectations for yourself and believe in yourself, but to put up over 300 yards in two games ...

A: Yeah. No, I don't think I've surprised myself at all. I think that my whole career, I've just sort of waited for an opportunity to take on sort of that role where I know I'm going to be getting the ball a lot. And like I'm not surprised because I've done it in practice through training camp and practice every day and the offseason. I live, breathe and die football. Like that's all I think about 24/7 outside of my family (slight laugh). But I don't play when it comes to football. Like this is what I've dreamed about since I was a little kid. And so I don't think I'm surprised by any success because my whole day and my whole year is predicated on what's gonna allow me to perform at a high level and I think the work is showing.

Q: How have you seen you and Jacoby's chemistry grow these last few games even more so just getting those more looks your way?

A: He's just a phenomenal person, phenomenal player. Really easy to play with. Just his communication; like he just sends me so many clips. I kid you not. The game last week against the Niners, the catch that put me over 100 yards when I caught the corner over Deommodore (Lenoir), he sent me that clip because a team had run that route or had run a far cross. So they're running across the field and Deommodore had tried to slice it and he's like, “Hey I see if we call this play, I see them trying to slice it, so just trust that you're going to beat him over the top.” And he sent me that with the voiceover. Like I could show you the text right now. And it played out exactly like that. And he does that continuously throughout the week.

Calls me, two-minute phone call. “Hey, go to play 56 when Jacksonville played the Bengals.” Like if we have that play in, “I like how Ja’Marr Chase did this. I see you running it this way.” Or we have a play in, he didn't like how a receiver ran a certain route. “Hey, I see you running it this way.” And I always log those, write them down in my notes so that way it's on the forefront of my mind when I'm playing the game. And so it's not -- going back to your surprise question -- like I'm never surprised when that stuff shows up on Sunday because I'm a firm believer in preparation and playing with him is like we're on our P's and Q's.

Q: What does that impact when you know, OK, he might play it this way. Does that just impact how you might run the route?

A: Yeah, for sure. Just giving you like a heads-up; just maybe a tell or a certain thing that's on the forefront of your mind going into a certain play because we've talked about it throughout the week.

Q: Did you know that you might play a role in that last regulation drive? Did you know that you were going to go over the top and was that an idea at some point on that drive? The play you made right before the field goal.

A: No, honestly, we hadn't even repped that route (laughter). Honestly, that was a phenomenal play-call by (offensive coordinator) Drew (Petzing). We noticed that they were trying to jump a lot of stuff and that was just Drew seeing the game and trusted me to go make a play and trusting in the call and trusting that Jacoby's going to make the throw, that I was going to win on the route and Drew dialed it up.

Q: I think it was before your first games, before last week. JG or someone said that you had really improved in your route-running from last year to this year. What areas of your route-running do you think have taken that step forward?

A: I think my route-running has really improved. I want to give all the credit, not all the credit, but a lot of the credit to my receiver coach, Drew Terrell. Because the way he teaches us to run routes is really simple. It's body posture, coming off the route or coming off the line of scrimmage. It's launching. It's keeping your stride-length open. It's being relaxed at the top of the route. It's attacking the ball with your hands. It's four to five simple things that if you can do that at a really high level and execute those small things at a high level, it turns into 185-yard games, 120-yard games.

And I really think that me working with him and trusting in his coaching has been the difference-maker of allowing me to step into this role that I guess that's been bestowed upon me the last two weeks and being able to thrive in that because I've been working on his coaching points for three years now. But I feel like this offseason and going into this season, I really feel like I have maximized my athletic body and been able to maximize my play-speed to make me able to create separation on some really good corners. Trusting my hands to make plays away from my body and not try to body catch. I think that was one thing I needed to work on from my rookie year and I feel like just all those things are coming to fruition.

Q: Given how the play turned out, I don't think it really made any difference. But after you made the big catch, the spin (of the ball), and then running after it, kind of what's going through your mind?

A: Yeah, I made a big play. And I hate to say it, but truthfully, I just had a mental lapse. And obviously the optics of it just looks undisciplined. It looks bad. And that's not indicative of who I am as a player and how we coach things. Like we talk about our SOPs, our standard operating procedures, in two-minute from OTAs and we talk about that every week. JG talks about, “You catch an explosive, if we don't have a timeout, you run the ball back to the ref.” Like it's just a bad play on my part, or not a bad play, but a bad moment for me and I gotta just get up, hand the ball to the ref. I don't think it affected anything, but it just looks undisciplined. It looks sloppy.

Q: You've been transparent for years of understanding what your role is and that even if you're not the most targeted, you're OK with blocking and just getting a few targets a game and playing behind Marvin and since he hasn't been able to play, the way you have taken advantage of the opportunity. I'm curious what, if anything, he has said to you the last few weeks given what you've been doing out there.

A: Yeah, he's been really encouraging. The main message I've got from him and truthfully like everyone in the building is that everyone's like, “I'm not surprised at all by the production the way I performed over the last few years.” I feel like that's just been the theme of what my strength coaches have told me, my offensive coordinator, my receiver coach, teammates around me, they've all been really supportive and been like, "Hey man, like we’ve seen the work that you've been putting in since your rookie year, the work you put in every day.” No one is surprised that the results are what they are.

Q: What's that mean to you to hear guys say that they're not surprised by you going out there and balling?

A: It's definitely a gratifying feeling. Like one thing that I'm big on is -- more than production -- is earning the respect of people in the building. I'm big on that. And I think the way you do that is how you show up every day and the way people see you work. And so I think it's really humbling and I think it's a big win for me when I hear people say that because that's one of the things I pride myself on is like process, preparation more than results. Because ultimately you have 100 percent control over your process and your preparation and people can feel that and see it.

Q: You mentioned catching the ball away from your body, making those contested catches. To us, that's the thing that's stood out the most in your two starts. What in your mind has been the biggest reason for your success? Has that been the thing you've done best or is there something else that we're not seeing?

A: The biggest reason for my success is it's really the opportunity. It's Coach Gannon trusting me, Coach Petzing trusting me, calling plays for me, my receiver coach trusting me. And then Jacoby obviously trusting me and throwing me the ball; the offensive line. You can't put up those numbers without a good OC calling the plays, good quarterback play, good OLine play. It's not just all me. It's this whole organism, this whole organization believing in me and putting me in those situations to make those plays. And then ultimately that's when it falls on me. But to answer your question, I feel like the biggest thing that stood out is just having the opportunity to get 18 targets, 15, like I've never had that opportunity really since high school.

Q: Another thing JG mentioned is your instincts as a player. Maybe there's a 12-yard dig called and you feel the coverage, you break it off after six yards. That's obviously a really difficult thing to see without knowing what the play was. Have there been any plays in these two games where you've made an instinct play and broken off what may have been called?

A: Yeah, we called it; I had an in-breaker. We were in empty against San Francisco. I think it was second-and-9 and the paper route on that is like a 10-to-12-yard, we call it a hatchet route. So it's a third outside, five total steps speed-in and they went Cover 1 and I saw like the whole middle of the field vacate. So I ran the route at like four yards and Jacoby gave me a ball on my low hip and I ended up getting the first down. I think that play when JG had talked to me, he was like that was his favorite route that I ran that whole week because that's like receiver instincts.

OK, I know my depth is really supposed to be at 10, but I feel the middle of the field vacate. So that means they're blitzing and there's pressure. Let me just be quarterback friendly, snap my route off early and like Jacoby and I just have a natural rapport for just getting open, catching the football, him throwing to me. So yeah, I think that play.

Q: It also feels like you have a a good understanding of where spaces are in zones. Is that something you've developed throughout your career and has that popped up in these two games?

A: Yeah, I think for sure. I mean, I've been playing football since I was eight, been playing receiver since I was 14. So like I feel like I've been in every single scenario of catching the football, of making every different type of catch, every type of route versus man, zone. Like you just do things so many times that you just have a natural feel for how to get open, how to catch the football. I think it's just; this is my 17th season playing football, so it's just bank reps.

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This article originally appeared on Cards Wire: Cardinals WR Michael Wilson talks opportunity, production and more