Throughout the 2025 NFL season, SB Nation’s Doug Farrar writes about the game’s Secret Superstars — those players whose performances might slip under the radar for whatever reasons. In this installment, we focus on Arizona Cardinals receiver Michael Wilson, who quarterback Jacoby Brissett insisted was going to have a massive game against the San Francisco 49ers last Sunday. Wilson did just that with an epic bit of production to all areas of the field.
The Arizona Cardinals came into their Sunday game against the San Francisco 49ers without receiver Marvin Harrison Jr., who was out with appendicitis. They also had journeyman quarterback Jacoby Brissett starting his fifth straight game, as Kyler Murray’s future with the franchise becomes ever more uncertain. And with in-game deficits of 13-0, 19-7, 35-10, and 41-17 in the game itself, the decision was made to throw the ball at an historic pace.
Which is what happened. Brissett set an NFL regular-season record with 47 completions on 57 attempts for 452 yards, two touchdowns, two interceptions, and a passer rating of 96.8. Ben Roethlisberger also had 47 completions against the Cleveland Browns in the 2020 Wild Card round, a game the Pittsburgh Steelers lost, 48-37, just as the Cardinals lost this game, 41-22.
Still, per Next Gen Stats, Brissett became the first player in NFL history with an 80.0+ completion percentage on 50+ pass attempts in a game. Brissett also recorded the highest completion percentage ever by a player with 450+ passing yards in a game.
Somebody had to be the primary beneficiary of Brissett’s voluminous completions, and that was third-year receiver Michael Wilson from Stanford. Coming into this game, Wilson had caught 22 passes on 37 targets for 231 yards and a touchdown, so few expected his stat line of 15 catches on 18 targets for 185 yards. That was not on anybody’s bingo card.
To his credit, though, Brissett called it to a point in the week leading up to the game.
“I think Mike is just tough,” Brissett said last Wednesday. “He does everything for us. He blocks; he clears people out. He does all of the grimy stuff, and then when you sit back and you watch him, you’re like, man, it’s his turn to get the ball. His speed and power when he runs. He creates separation. He has strong hands. He’s a guy that’s going to step up and make a lot of plays this week, and I’m excited for him and the opportunity. He’s just one of those guys where you want to see him succeed.”
Well, Brissett did his level best, and Wilson responded with a game that showed all of his positive traits. Wilson caught 10 of 10 targets on passes of 0-9 air yards, two of four targets on passes of 10-19 air yards, and three passes on four targets on passes of 20 or more air yards. Those explosive completions confirmed Brissett’s analysis regarding Wilson’s ability to create separation with speed and power while running through coverage.
“I think that’s what we expected from him,” Brissett said postgame. “I thought he was going to rise to the occasion. Like I said earlier in the week in my press conference, I was excited to give him this opportunity – well, not for me to give him this opportunity, but [for this opportunity] to present itself to him, and that he was going to [have the chance to] put on display what we all see every day. I thought he played his butt off, and made a bunch of plays for us.”
Winning would have been nice, but as Brissett said, you have to take a second and appreciate the moment. It’s tough to win when you set a franchise record for penalties in a game with 17 (this franchise has been in existence since 1920, as one of the original American Professional Football Association teams before the APFA became the National Football League in 1922), and you allow opponents to find the end zone at a fairly epic rate.
“I haven’t had a game like that since high school, so regardless of the outcome of the game, that was a big milestone for myself,” Wilson remarked postgame. “I’m going to be proud of myself because it’s hard to get catches in this league.
“I’ve been here for three years, and I feel like I haven’t been able to produce at the level that I wanted to, and a lot of that is because my role prior to this game wasn’t [as] the number one receiver, and I accepted that role. If you keep working hard, the laws of nature have a funny way of giving you exactly what you deserve.”
Well, maybe this is the start of something big in a Cardinals passing game that still has more questions than answers in the long term.
