• Trey McBride is great with Kyler Murray: McBride was more productive per game with Murray in 2023 than any other tight end was over the entire season.
• Dalton Kincaid is looking for that sophomore breakout: Kincaid compares favorably to other elite tight ends in their rookie seasons, but there is no guarantee he will take that big step this season.
• Dominate your fantasy draft: Subscribe to PFF+ to get full access to PFF’s suite of fantasy football tools, including the fantasy mock draft simulator, live draft assistant, fantasy draft rankings, cheat sheets and more! Click here to subscribe!
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
Each season, there are players who are heavily rostered on fantasy playoff and championship teams. They range from first-round picks to players who weren’t drafted and everywhere in between, but several players at the top were picked in the second, third and fourth rounds. These league winner articles aim to identify the players that should be picked in one of those three rounds that are most likely to finish at the top of these kinds of lists at the end of the season.
Last updated: 7:15 a.m. Thursday, Aug. 29
Trey McBride, Arizona Cardinals (ADP: 4.07, From consensus ADP)
McBride was the TE4 from Week 6 on, averaging 13.8 fantasy points per game. Once McBride fully won the lead tight end role, he was a clear top-five tight end in both fantasy football and real life.
His primary competition his first two years was Zach Ertz, who is now with the Washington Commanders, so that’s less competition for McBride to worry about. The Cardinals drafted Tip Reiman in the third round of the 2024 NFL Draft, but he will likely be used only as a run-blocking tight end in two-tight end sets. Reiman is listed at 273 pounds, making him among the heaviest tight ends in the league. C.J. Uzomah is the only tight end at that weight with any significant receiving production in the past five seasons, but he has consistently graded around replacement level as a receiver. The Cardinals' drafting of Reiman shouldn't hurt McBride's production.
The main concern for McBride is that Arizona also selected wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. in the draft. McBride was targeted on 25.9% of his routes last season. Harrison will be replacing Marquise Brown, who was targeted on 20.4% of his routes. Harrison is expected to see a 5-10 percentage-point increase compared to Brown, so at least some of those targets will likely come from McBride.
There are plenty of examples of elite wide receivers and tight ends thriving together in fantasy football. From the past three seasons, that includes Travis Kelce with Tyreek Hill, George Kittle with Brandon Aiyuk and Deebo Samuel Sr., T.J. Hockenson with Justin Jefferson, and Rob Gronkowski with Mike Evans. This may help McBride because he won’t be double-covered as often, which is the one situation in which he has struggled more than most tight ends.
Kyler Murray will remain McBride's quarterback. McBride potentially wasn’t as productive early in his career because he didn’t have Murray for much of it. There was only one full game in 2022 with Murray at quarterback and McBride without Ertz at tight end. Murray didn’t return to the starting role until Week 10 of last season, and McBride’s fantasy production per game increased to 14.9 points per game with him at the helm. No tight end averaged that many points per game over the entire season last year.
McBride is capable of finishing as the overall TE1 this season if he simply keeps playing as well as he did in 2023 with Murray at quarterback. The only concerns are how many targets Harrison Jr. will take away from him and that McBride’s great play has come on a relatively small sample size.
For a more complete look at McBride this season, check out his full player profile.
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