Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Michael Wilson has built an NFL career that looks a little different from the rest of his family tree.
At 6-foot-2 and 213 pounds, Wilson stands apart in a household where, as he put it, his father, mother and three brothers all come in below 5-foot-10.
“I’m the tallest person in my whole family,” Wilson said.
That size edge has helped him carve out a place on Sundays, but Wilson is quick to point out that the real foundation has been the people around him. His family background includes pro sports - his mother’s sister, Maureen Jacobson, played professional soccer in New Zealand - and his wife, Sophia Smith, plays pro soccer for Portland Thorns FC. Wilson also described his brothers as “athletic.”
Still, he is the only one in the family lining up in the NFL, a path he said would not “in a million years” have been imagined back home. For Wilson, the surprise has come with a strong dose of gratitude.
“My family is everything,” Wilson said. “My family is extremely proud of me, just from where my parents came from and how we grew up.”
The biggest piece of that support system, he said, comes from his three brothers, who remain a regular part of his life and his football routine. The age gap is wide - Wilson is 26, while his brothers are 43, 28 and 19 - but the bond is tight.
“My brothers are my best friends and [I] truly would not be in this seat, in this situation, without them. They are my biggest supporters,” he said.
He went even further when talking about what it means to have them in his corner.
“My brothers are everything. Any man knows the privilege of having brothers is, I think, one of life’s hidden gems.
It’s such an advantage to have brothers that you’re so close with. And I just have the utmost respect for all of them and love them so much.”
That support doesn’t stop after kickoff. Wilson said the family feedback keeps coming after games, too.
“I talk to my brother every day. And though he’s not an NFL player or in the building, he knows ball and knows when I’m playing at my best. And so they constantly offer critiques. … if I don’t win on the route, Marcus is always like, ‘Man, I need you to be more physical on this play,'” Wilson said, with a laugh.
The advice has come alongside a breakout stretch in Arizona. This season, Wilson leads the Cardinals in receiving yards with 258 and in receiving yards per game with 64.6, even while sharing targets with Trey McBride. He’s coming off a 2025 breakout that included his first 1000-yard season and seven touchdowns, production that turned into a three-year, $75 million extension.
That deal was not the obvious outcome when Wilson came out of Stanford.
He entered the draft with a thin body of work, having played only 14 total games over his final three college seasons because of COVID-19 and injuries. Wilson said the lack of game tape made things harder on him.
“I didn’t have a big sample size of games and me playing at my best,” he said. “I was a guy that needed to develop. … typically, your junior year and your fourth year and if you do need a fifth year, that should be your best display of tape.
“The COVID year, I played three games. And then my fourth year, I missed the first eight games, so I barely had any practice time.
My senior year of film just wasn’t great. … I wasn’t as healthy as I could be and I hadn’t had banked the reps, so I just looked sloppy on tape - I’ll be the first one to admit that.
My fifth year, I thought I was off to a good start, but then I broke my collarbone and missed the last six games of the season.”
Even with those limitations, the Cardinals took him in the third round of the 2023 Draft, selecting him 94th overall.
Arizona wasn’t the only team interested, but current Cardinals head coach Mike LaFleur, then the Rams’ offensive coordinator, was not sold at the time.
“I don’t think I was as high on them as those guys were,” LaFleur admitted to reporters.
Then he added the part that stuck.
“And boy, I couldn’t have been more wrong. I learned that right away, right when he started really getting those targets last year and seeing all the same things when you look back and the strength and all those kind of things.”
Wilson laughed when asked about those remarks and said LaFleur had already given him a heads-up before the comments reached the media.
“I thought it was pretty funny,” said Wilson. “It’s all good now, we’re all in the same building.”
For Wilson, the football journey has been shaped by resilience, but also by the people who kept him grounded when the path looked anything but straightforward. Health has been the biggest obstacle in his NFL career, and when he has been available, he has shown flashes of becoming the kind of receiver Arizona needed beyond McBride.
In 42 career starts, Wilson has 2,377 yards and 15 touchdowns, with an average of 12.6 yards per catch. LaFleur’s view of him today is a lot different from the one he had on draft day.
As LaFleur put it, Wilson is “continuing to improve.”
In Other News...
Cardinals Suddenly Have A Quarterback Question That Could Define Next Year
A rough outing from Jacoby Brissett has pushed the Cardinals into an offseason conversation they probably hoped to avoid this soon. Arizona is now taking a hard look at its quarterback options, with Gardner Minshew and rookie Carson Beck among the names in the mix as the staff and front office sort through what the position should look like beyond this year.
Brissetts deal runs through the end of the current season, and the timing matters because the Cardinals are set up with meaningful cap space and a high draft pick next offseason. That combination gives them flexibility, but it also raises the stakes of getting the quarterback decision right, especially if Oregons Dante Moore becomes a real target down the road. [Read more 🡒]
Buccaneers Already Face A Bigger Problem Than Their 0-4 Start
Early in the 2026 NFC race, the first month has already made a mess of the standings and the hierarchy. Tampa Bays 0-4 start has become the easy talking point, but the bigger lesson for teams like Arizona is how quickly one surprise win can get folded into a larger, shakier picture once the season settles in. The Cardinals opened with an upset and looked like they might belong in the conversation, only to follow it with a stretch that has made their place in the conference feel far less secure.
What makes this part of the season so tricky is how little the early rankings mean if the follow-up is uneven. Arizona has already shown enough to get attention, but not enough to remove the uncertainty that comes with a young season and a volatile NFC board. For the Cardinals, the question now is less about whether the opener was real and more about whether they can turn a promising start into something more stable before the rest of the conference sorts itself out. [Read more 🡒]
Cardinals Have A Real Chance To Punish Detroits Biggest Weakness
Detroits defense has been stout in a lot of areas this season, but the Cardinals are walking into a matchup that could stress one of the Lions clearest vulnerabilities. With Week 5 bringing Arizona and Detroit together, the setup makes this feel like the kind of game where recent form and defensive tendencies can matter as much as the headline names on either sideline.
The broader Week 5 prediction slate also includes Dolphins-Bengals and Vikings-Saints, but Arizonas path is the one that stands out for a team looking to make a statement. If the Cardinals can take advantage of what Detroit has struggled with most, they could turn a difficult road test into an opportunity to show their offense is built to challenge a contender where it hurts. [Read more 🡒]