First quarter report cards: Arizona Cardinals offense - 2023

Wide receiver

The wide receivers for the Arizona Cardinals have been a strong group this season. For all the explosive potential, it would actually be most apt to describe this unit as reliable.

Nobody in the receiving room has been held out with an injury despite several players being marked as injury prone. This unit also has demonstrated sure hands as Marquise Brown, Rondale Moore, and Michael Wilson only have three combined drops this season.

Marquise Brown went into this season in a contract year needing to perform to maximize his earnings in free agency. Thus far he has performed similarly to his previous two seasons. He is averaging exactly 60 yards per game this season.

The Cardinals have made it a point to get Hollywood the ball frequently and right now is the most reliable pass catcher on the roster. He is currently on pace for 143 targets and just over 1,000 yards which would basically match his previous career highs.

Everything the Cardinals have said about Michael Wilson since training camp has been glowing, and it did not take long for Wilson to show why that was the case. He is already at 255 yards receiving and has a real chance to surpass fellow third round peer Terry McLaurin when he racked up 919 yards in his own rookie season.

With just 15 more receiving yards Wilson will exceed what third round rookie wide receivers average over the course of an entire season. There are some great receivers that have come out of the third round in recent years; Cooper Kupp, Chris Godwin, Diontae Johnson and Tyler Lockett being just a few. All signs point to Michael Wilson belonging with those names.

While Brown and Wilson have met or exceeded expectations, Rondale Moore has been disappointing. Through five weeks he has still not reached the century mark in receiving yards. Drew Petzing has found different ways to use him and while he has found some success as a gadget player it feels like he will never be an NFL caliber receiver. Perhaps the wide receiver screens were not all on Kingsbury being uncreative but rather it was all that Moore was effective at.  

Though it looks like the Cardinals found a gem in Michael Wilson, Rondale Moore looking like another miss in a long list of disappointing Cardinals wide receivers keeps this group from earning an especially high mark.

• Grade: B+