TEMPE, Ariz. -- Michael Wilson has a date circled on the calendar and it has nothing to do with the Arizona Cardinals' Week 1 opponent.
It's the day the Cards report to training camp in July.
That's when Wilson, entering his fourth season, will turn the page on a successful 2025, during which he reached 1,006 receiving yards, the first time he hit 1,000 yards in his career. Until then, however, he's going to continue basking in the glow of reaching the milestone in the best season of his young professional career.
"I'm not over it yet," Wilson said. "I'm definitely going to enjoy having that 1K going into July 23rd."
Wilson and his production were one of the few highlights for the Cardinals during a dismal 3-14 season that ended with coach Jonathan Gannon getting fired and, a few months later, Kyler Murray getting released. And while being just one of 19 pass catchers last season to eclipse 1,000 yards made last season memorable for Wilson, he appreciates it more because of how he got there.
Through the first five games, Wilson had less-than-pedestrian numbers: eight catches on 18 targets for 52 yards and one touchdown. That's a pace of about 177 yards -- for the entire season. Then in Week 6, Jacoby Brissett replaced an injured Murray and Wilson slowly started ascending. He had 44 yards in Week 6, after a season high of just 16 in Week 5, followed by games of 40, 61 and 34 yards.
Then Week 11 happened.
With both Marvin Harrison Jr. and Zay Jones out with injuries, Wilson became WR1. Then he lived up to the role.
Wilson had 185 yards on 15 catches in Week 11 at San Francisco, kicking off an impressive four-week run. He followed with performances of 118 yards against Jacksonville, just 36 yards at Tampa Bay but then 142 yards against the Los Angeles Rams for a four-week total of 481 yards, the most in the NFL over that span. He also led the NFL with 56 targets, 39 receptions and receiving yards per game during that four-game stretch.
He finished the year with games of 54, 52, 89 and 99 yards. From Week 11 on, Wilson had the second-most receiving yards and targets, and third-most receptions and routes in the NFL.
For the season, Wilson had 79 receptions and seven touchdowns on 127 targets, while running 593 routes -- the third-most in the NFL. They were all career highs.
"If myself from February could have went back to myself in October and said, like, 'Hey, man, you're going to have a thousand,'" Wilson said, "I probably would have been like, 'Jesus Christ. I don't know what would have happened for me to get a thousand, but some pretty cool stuff would have had to happen.'
"And, so, yeah, I'm still proud of myself for that."
Wilson's run from Week 11 to Week 18 has become his new standard, one that he hopes to replicate in 2026 in a new system with a new playcaller. If he can continue his production at that level, Wilson thinks it'll "be interesting to see what that type of play style and how confident and how well I was playing over 18 games."
The timing of his breakout season could not have been better.
Heading into his fourth season, Wilson is eligible for an extension. He opted to keep the details of his conversations with the Cardinals private but said he won't let the negotiations, and the status of those negotiations, impact his offseason or next season.
Wilson is scheduled to earn a base salary of $3.924 million in 2026. Already in 2026, there have been four multi-year extensions signed by receivers, according to Spotrac. Seattle's Jaxon Smith-Njigba led the way with a four-year deal worth $168.6 million but Green Bay's Jayden Reed signed a three-year contract for $50.25 million while Pittsburgh's Michael Pittman Jr. signed a two-year deal worth $35 million.
Philadelphia also gave Dontayvion Wicks a one-year extension worth $12.5 million.
Smith-Njigba, Reed and Wicks were also part of Wilson's 2023 draft class but, of that group, only Smith-Njigba and Wilson had 1,000 yards. Other potential extensions for receivers from the 2023 class include Los Angeles' Puka Nacua and Baltimore's Zay Flowers, both of whom had 1,000 yards last season.
But as he's seen him around the facility this offseason, Wilson said with a laugh that he has yet to remind general manager Monti Ossenfort that he had 1,000 yards last season.
As he waits for his deal to get done -- if it gets done -- Wilson will carry on with business as usual.
"I don't want that to affect how I show up every single day because ultimately that stuff is going to take care of itself," he said. "What I did last year, I can't change. Like, that's my resume, that's what we're going off of.
"But as soon as Week 1 starts and we're playing against [the] L.A. Chargerss, contract stuff, that stuff doesn't matter. What I did last year doesn't matter. I need to make sure I'm taking care of what I can now, tomorrow, the next day after that. That's going to help me sort of replicate that season and build upon that."
