Arizona Cardinals: Trey McBride continues his late-season emergence
By Sion Fawkes
Arizona Cardinals tight end Trey McBride has not enjoyed the best rookie season, but he once again came on strong in Week 17.
In a game where the Arizona Cardinals started their fourth different quarterback this season, tight end Trey McBride adjusted to put on an epic performance, logging seven receptions, 78 yards, and a touchdown. He averaged 11.1 yards per catch, and had a long of 28 yards.
Despite the persistent losing, you have to be happy with the way McBride has come on as of late. He now has 26 receptions for 224 yards and a touchdown. No, this may not seem like a lot, but factor in the previous six weeks, where McBride has 16 catches on 23 targets for 123 yards and a touchdown.
Not bad numbers, and when factored over a 17 game stretch, you get 45 catches, 349 yards, and three touchdowns. Once again, these aren’t great numbers, but they are serviceable, considering how slow of a start McBride got off to over the first nine weeks of the season.
Trey McBride does it again for the Arizona Cardinals
But wait, it gets better. McBride’s numbers over his previous three games are this: 14 catches, 19 targets, 150 yards, and a touchdown. That is even more dramatic improvement as opposed to what we saw over the first 14 weeks this season.
And what’s more impressive? This all came with Colt McCoy, Tracey McSorley, and David Blough starting at quarterback. And with Kyler Murray slated to return in September, McBride could put up better than expected numbers in 2023.
Overall, the 2021 John Mackey Award winner and Unanimous All-American is finally looking like the player the Arizona Cardinals thought they were getting in the second round of this season’s draft. Now, it’s time to see if McBride can keep up this pace as the season heads into its final week.
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McBride and the Cardinals wrap up the season next Sunday against the San Francisco 49ers. Then, it’s onto the offseason, and we will see what the Redbirds decide to do with Kliff Kingsbury and Company.
(Statistics provided by Pro-Football-Reference and ESPN)
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