It was a bit of a surprise when the Arizona Cardinals selected tight end trey McBride in the second round of the NFL draft last month. However, the Cardinals are very excited about him. They love the potential he adds.
Many would say he is a younger version of Zach Ertz, whom they re-signed this offseason for three seasons.
They don’t see McBride as an Ertz clone. They see him as even more versatile.
“He’s more similar to Maxx Williams,” Cardinals vice president of player personnel Quentin Harris said on The Dave Pasch Podcast. “A little younger, a little more athletic.”
Williams has not put up big numbers but was having what looked like a career season last year before his tore his ACL in Week 5. His blocking opened up the running game and he caught some passes. Head coach Kliff Kingsbury has raved on multiple occasions about how Williams is a complete tight end.
“In this day in age, it’s really difficult to get a tight end who can catch the ball and be a receiver as well as run block,” Harris said. ?That’s why we love Trey so much because he’s a guy who can line (up) inline and knock people off the ball or he can flex out and be matched up versus a safety and feel good.”
McBride caught 90 passes for 1,121 yards and a touchdown for Colorado State last season. He was universally considered the best tight end in the draft.
Being a tight end like Maxx Williams is potentially important because Williams is coming back from his knee injury.
After McBride was drafted, it was revealed that Williams has no timetable for his return.
Both McBride and Williams ended up being the 55th pick in their respective drafts.
McBride is 6-4 and 246 lbs. Williams was 6-4, 249 coming out of Minnesota for the draft.
They profiled similarly athletically.
If McBride can be similar to Williams in effectiveness, he will have ended up being a fantastic draft pick.
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