RELATED: See all of our 2026 Player Spotlights here
Trey McBride is awesome. He's been arguably a top-three tight end in football and a fantasy gold mine the past three seasons. The best indicator of future fantasy production is past fantasy production, and it's hard to argue with his 2025 fantasy football output:
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- Games: 17
- Targets: 169
- Receptions: 126
- Receiving Yards: 1239
- Yards per Reception: 9.8
- Touchdowns: 11
- Fantasy Rank (Per Game): 1st (By 3.9 points per game)
But unlike Jason Wood in his positive article for Mark Andrews, I'm here to tell you that Trey McBride's fantasy production isn't repeatable and his cost is too high. The Arizona Cardinals were throwing passes and things at the wall to see what would stick, and it's unlikely that McBride's absurd volume hits again.
Why 2025 Went Well for Trey McBride
Often, injuries and quarterback turmoil lead to a negative season for pass catchers. But the Arizona Cardinals steered into the skid and let Jacoby Brissett cook. They had 649 pass attempts, the most in the league. Yes, the Cardinals let Brissett attempt more passes per game than Joe Burrow, Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes II. As a result, McBride led all tight ends in total routes, and in sheer volume, he was a force to be reckoned with in fantasy football.
The total routes wouldn't have had an impact, except that McBride also led all tight ends in target share, designed targets, and first-read targets; basically, he was the team's first option for most of the season. Marvin Harrison Jr. missed five games due to a series of unfortunate events, James Conner missed most of the season, and the team had no target competition other than Michael Wilson. McBride has blossomed into an alpha, but maybe not to the extent seen in 2025.
On top of the insane volume and target share, McBride dominated the red zone. From 2022 to 2024, he got into the end zone once every 37 receptions. Then in 2025, he got in once every 11! Either he got 300% better in the red zone in one year to account for almost half of the team's touchdowns, or touchdowns are a high-variance play, and he rolled high in 2025.
Drew Petzing threw all tendencies to the winds in 2025, going from two years of league-average pass attempts per year and rushing attempts per year to leaning completely into the pass. They led the league in pass attempts and were last in rush attempts. This was an organization throwing up their hands, and instead of being Carrie Underwood, they let Trey McBride take the wheel.