2023 NFL draft: 10 biggest offensive standouts from 2023 East-West Shrine & Senior Bowl events

#5. Michael Wilson, Stanford (WR)

Notre Dame v Stanford

This guy was almost forgotten by the general draft media. Michael Wilson is a former four-star recruit who put up nearly 700 yards and five touchdowns as a true sophomore. Wilson only played in 14 combined games over the past three seasons (64-864-5) due to multiple injuries that knocked him out for the year. Ultimately, he got to show his skills again big-time during Senior Bowl week.

There were reports earlier in the week that Wilson trains with former Pro Bowl WR T.J. Houshmandzadeh and it was on display with his route-running. Right off the bat, he showed that he’s a name to track all week when he cooked his former Stanford teammate Kyu Blu Kelly off the line on a slant route during the first one-on-one session.

Wilson continued to make guys look foolish off the line, with slow-playing the get-off and his body language, to get corners leaning the wrong way. On several occasions, he made the job easy for the quarterback, as he got a couple of steps on his man with diamond releases on slant routes.

On day three he also ran a beautiful curl route against USC’s Mekhi Blackmon. He had like a walk-up approach before threatening vertically with that burst down the sideline and then sticking his foot in the ground to come back to the QB.

Along the way, he was able to play with guys off the ball. He also showed the ability to reduce his size and not have any delay breaking out to the sideline, after threatening vertically. Further down the field, I really liked how he would tilt and lean into defenders, before breaking guys off and shaking them off.

Wilson showed great focus when guys were able to re-enter the catch window due to imperfect throws and he pinned the ball against his chest right away. He did so once on a post route versus Iowa’s Riley Moss, where the had to slow down for the throw.

When the ball was lofted over his head a couple of times, Wilson showed that he does have that extra gear when the ball is in the air, to run underneath it. He once got past Maryland’s Jakorian Bennett on an awesome stutter-go. He really turned his body and snapped his head around for a split-second before taking off, and then couldn’t quite hold onto the ball in the end-zone (as he was just able to get his fingertips on it).

Then, of course, Wilson ended the week with an exclamation mark, when he caught a 44-yard touchdown late in the game on Saturday (on an intentionally underthrown post route off play-action), where Jake Haener allowed him to work back and high-point the ball.