TEMPE — It’s no secret the extent the Arizona Cardinals have gone to improve their defense this offseason.
From key free agent signings such as Josh Sweat, Dalvin Tomlinson and Calais Campbell, to allocating six of their seven draft picks to the defensive side of the ball, there’s no doubt more will be expected of the group in 2025.
One key piece it apparently won’t have, however, is former green dot linebacker Kyzir White. White was second on the team in tackles last season (137) and first in children of coordinators named after him (one).
Mack Wilson Sr. was right behind White in tackles at the position (75 in one fewer game) and is now on track to enter the upcoming season as the backer most firmly entrenched in defensive coordinator Nick Rallis’ system.
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He said his approach to the work is where his leadership will show up the most, as new faces like Akeem Davis-Gaither (Cincinnati Bengals free agent) and Cody Simon (rookie from Ohio State) are ingratiated into the room.
“Honestly, I just be me. I come to work, I’ll be the same person every day,” Wilson said on Thursday. “When it’s time to lead, I lead, and I’m a guy who really just leads by action. Like, I come to work, I work hard. I try to fight through any and every thing, and I just try my best to be available as much as possible.
“I’m not a rah-rah type of guy. When it’s words that need to be spoken, I’ll speak, if that makes sense,” he added.
He said he’s excited to see the new faces put on Cardinals colors to compete for the first time.
Wilson expressed on Arizona Sports’ Bickley & Marotta that he’s confident in what the team has put together, gearing up to make a playoff run in the third year of the Jonathan Gannon-Monti Ossenfort regime.
“Just building off the momentum from last season and the camaraderie we built. And I feel like just coming into this offseason program … you can just feel the urge to get to work with everybody,” Wilson told Bickley & Marotta on Thursday. “I honestly feel like we’re headed in the right direction.
“I feel like we’re ready, you know, we’re just going to take it one day at a time and see where we end up, but I like our chances though.”
Mack Wilson’s rap career directly tied to Cardinals
Wilson made national headlines on Wednesday when the Cardinals utilized his rapping talents for their regular season schedule release under his alias, Rocketship.
He then revealed on Thursday the alias has ties to Arizona’s logo.
How did Cardinals LB Mack Wilson Sr. come up with his rapper alias, Rocketship? pic.twitter.com/IxCg8eI184
— Arizona Sports (@AZSports) May 15, 2025
Wilson wasn’t wrong about his career taking off in Arizona, as his four tackles for loss and seven QB hits in 2024 were the most or tied for the most in his six-year career. His 75 tackles were second only to the 82 he had as a rookie in 2019.
The rapping part of his career also took off, beginning with a four-game win streak Arizona enjoyed midway through the season, stemming from friendships with two now-former Cardinals teammates.
“I think me and (Zach Pascal) kind of went to the studio with (Jesse Luketa) one time and got on the song with him that I didn’t like at first ’cause it was my first time recording,” Wilson recounted. “I wasn’t super confident at the time and we kind of just stuck with it and it became a routine.
“After the first win that we got before the streak, we went to the studio that next day and recorded like three songs. And then we won the next one, went to the studio, did the same thing. We won the third one, went and did the same thing. So, we were sitting on like 15 songs in four weeks.”
The bye came the week after so the studio routine was put on pause and eventually “messed up,” Wilson recalled.
Wilson, or Rocketship, released two songs this week in collaboration with the team, both available on music streaming platforms. He teased another song coming after OTAs wrap up before “locking in” to get some wins.
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