The work done in the offseason with the Arizona Cardinals receivers and quarterback Kyler Murray away from the facility has been well-documented.
As the offseason program ended June 11, second-year wide receiver Michael Wilson noted how important the entire offseason was for the team’s offense and himself.
He explained, “Most of it comes from out here because we’re here four or five days a week, so we get most of the grunt work here. The weekends are just to work on some of the stuff that we may have missed, or things we need extra work on. Our offense is built off rhythm and timing. There’s not a whole bunch of feel that goes into our offense. It’s off steps. It’s off revolutions.
“When we run certain routes, it’s based off x step on your outside or inside foot. That takes time because his drop is predicated on our steps and our routes. Last year, we didn’t have enough time throughout the offseason to work on that timing; that chemistry. Now, I feel like it’s been as seamless and as flawless of OTAs as I could have hoped for. I think there’s been less than three balls on the ground between me and him this whole time.”
Wilson provided significant insight when he was asked to describe whether the rapport and growth was tangible or intangible.
“I would describe it as both,” he said. “Tangible because now he’s comfortable enough and we have a good enough relationship where we can go ahead and talk to each other and say, ‘Hey, what did I need to do on this? And I can go back and forth and say the same thing. I thought that ball could have been x place here or thought it could have been placed a little bit here. He can say, ‘Hey Mike, I want this route run like this.’ OK, boom, boom; it’s done. And so, tangible in that sense.
“Intangible because there’s sort of an unknown … I can’t quantify the feel that we both have for each other. He kind of knows how I run my routes now and knows the depth that I might come out of my route might be slightly different than Greg (Dortch) because my stride length as a taller guy is a little bit longer. Same thing holds true with Marvin (Harrison Jr.). His stride length is a little bit longer than mine. So we just understand like when I run a dig, my catch point might be at 20. Greg’s might be at 18, or 19. Those are subtle differences that maybe we can’t objectively state, but we can both feel; just the feel of the position from both sides. That’s the intangible part of that.”
Head coach Jonathan Gannon expects a lot of progress from Wilson this season.
“Where you’re ultimately evaluated is production on the grass, but how he gets to that production on the grass on a daily basis, I think he’ll take a jump with what he’s doing from all the standpoints of what that means — schematic, technique, physical, his health, what’s between his ears,” Gannon said. “He will take a jump in all those buckets as I call them.
“That will in turn give him a chance to increase his production and help us win. I really like where Mike is at. He’s as smart as they come, as competitive as they come, works on his craft, works on his game.”
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