Arizona Cardinals WR Michael Wilson unfazed by extension talks entering contract year

But Michael Wilson? He ticked all of those boxes. Over the final eight games of the season, only Puka Nacua had more receiving yards. Only Nacua and Wilson's teammate, Trey McBride, caught more passes. Only five players caught more touchdowns.

All of it seemingly sets Wilson up for a healthy payday. He is entering his fourth season, meaning that he is eligible for a contract extension. Without one, he is set to hit free agency next March. At the NFL combine in February, general manager Monti Ossenfort said, “Hopefully he's here (with the Cardinals) for a long time.”

For now, though, Wilson has not yet signed a long-term deal. It’s a stasis that can often push stars — especially wide receivers — to hold out during spring and summer practices, demanding a new deal before they return to the field. In recent years, Ja’Marr Chase, Brandon Aiyuk and Terry McLaurin have refused to practice without an extension. And in Arizona, quarterback Jacoby Brissett is currently making similar demands.

Just don’t expect Wilson to follow suit.

“That whole situation isn't gonna dictate my offseason,” Wilson said. “That's not something that I want to show up to the building with that on my mind and I don't want that to affect how I show up every single day. Because ultimately that stuff is gonna take care of itself.”

Beyond that, Wilson declined to provide an update on his contract talks. He acknowledged, though, that his résumé will ultimately determine the size of his next contract — and that the only thing he can do now is follow up his breakout 2025 with a similarly productive 2026.

“I need to make sure I'm taking care of what I can now, tomorrow, the next day after that that's gonna help me replicate that season and build upon that,” Wilson said.

Cardinals setting offensive foundations

During voluntary organized team activities — which began this week — the Cardinals’ offensive focus is on installing new head coach Mike LaFleur’s playbook. But that’s more involved than it sounds. It’s not simply a matter of learning the plays. It’s about understanding what each play is designed to exploit on defense.

“Make sure our quarterbacks are going through a certain progression against maybe a good coverage, maybe a bad coverage,” LaFleur said. “(The defense) called a bad play, how can we make that bad play worse?”

And at the same time, LaFleur is instilling a new set of fundamentals. Each coach, after all, has his own way of teaching these details.

“Here's how we hit blocks,” LaFleur said. “Here's how we hit interior blocks with our duo game, here's how the wide zone looks, here's our slides, here's our terminology. So you spent a lot of time just doing that.”

That process is particularly involved for the quarterbacks, who have to understand the logic of the playbook deeper than any other position does.

“Talking about all your backside progressions, stuff that's coming up in the quarterback's vision, why those words are what they are,” LaFleur said. “Then you go to the quick game, then you bucket it up into the different varieties of five-step and seven-step (drops) and all that, how the seven-step ties in with the play pass.”

Left unsaid: This is what Brissett is missing out on as he holds out for a new contract. If and when he returns to the practice field later this offseason, he will have missed a crucial period of LaFleur’s offensive installation.

Players offer insight into LaFleur’s offense

It comes as little surprise that Cardinals players have been effusive in their praise of LaFleur. But in describing LaFleur as “not an over details guy,” Wilson provided some insight into the philosophies of the Cardinals’ new coach.

“He understands football is controlled chaos and an uncontrolled environment,” Wilson said. “So he gives us enough rules but then allows natural ability, playmaking ability and natural athleticism and football wherewithal to kind of take over.”

Under Jonathan Gannon and Drew Petzing, the Cardinals’ offense was notoriously detailed. For example, each route had to be run with the same number of steps every time, with little room for creativity. It’s not yet clear exactly how LaFleur will tweak that philosophy, but it appears that players will have more leeway to ad-lib.

Wilson was wary of giving away too many details of LaFleur’s offense, but he did praise the “pre-snap operation,” describing it as “Mike’s calling card.” LaFleur has repeatedly focused on the importance of that issue since he was hired.

Wilson also said that he “likes the motions that we utilize and how that affects the run and pass game.” Under Petzing, the Cardinals were below league average in motion rate each season.