Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Michael Wilson is the anomaly of his family. His father, mother and three brothers all measure in below 5-foot-10.

“I’m the tallest person in my whole family,” Wilson said.

The wideout stands 6-foot-2, 213 pounds, and, of course, plays in the NFL. He does have roots in pro sports; his aunt on his mother’s side — Maureen Jacobson — played professional soccer in New Zealand. He described his brothers as “athletic.” His wife, Sophia Smith, plays pro soccer for Portland Thorns FC.

But Wilson is the only one suiting up on NFL Sundays — a dream he said would not “in a million years” have been imagined by his family. And he said he owes it all to them.

“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.”

But Wilson owes particular gratitude to the support of his three brothers, whom he speaks with regularly.

Cardinals’ Michael Wilson leans on support of his brothers

The age range is wide among the Wilson brothers. Michael is 26. His oldest brother is 43; his other two brothers are 28 and 19, respectively. They are Wilson’s best friends, the wideout said, outside of his wife and infant daughter, of course.

“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.

“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.”

Wilson said he’ll even receive postgame advice from them.

“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.

This year, Wilson leads the Cardinals in receiving yards (258) and receiving yards per game (64.6), despite vying with Trey McBride for the target share. He’s just one season removed from a 2025 breakout, in which he recorded his first 1000-yard season and found the end zone seven times.

That parlayed itself into a three-year, $75 million extension — a reality his parents and perhaps Wilson himself might not have expected coming out of college.

Michael Wilson overlooked in draft process by his current head coach

Wilson, a Stanford product, was not a prospect that jumped out of the tape and into the minds of GMs. He’d only played a total of 14 games in his final three seasons of college football, due to COVID-19 and some tough injury luck.

For a prospect that is more development-necessary than raw athletic freak, that worked against Wilson.

“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.”

And so, Wilson went in the third round of the 2023 Draft — 94th overall to the Cardinals.

Arizona was not the only organization high on the wideout, although then-Rams-offensive coordinator and current Cardinals head coach Mike LaFleur was not among Wilson’s admirers.

“I don’t think I was as high on them as those guys were,” LaFleur admitted to reporters.

“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, for a moment, when asked about his head coach’s comments. He said LaFleur warned him of what had just been divulged to the media.

 “I thought it was pretty funny,” said Wilson. “It’s all good now, we’re all in the same building.”

And health truly has been one of the only limiting factors in Wilson’s NFL career.

When he’s been on the field consistently — even in adverse schemes and circumstances — he’s shown signs of being the true No. 1 receiver Arizona had lacked (outside of McBride). In 42 career starts, he’s racked up 2,377 yards and 15 touchdowns while averaging 12.6 yards per reception.

And, as LaFleur added, “he’s continuing to improve.”