The Cardinals needed the touchdown. That they turned to Trey McBride was no surprise.
What's funny is that coach Mike LaFleur said the play that turned into McBride's ginormous score wasn't a good play call by him, nor a good play design. But QB Jacoby Brissett made the throw, and McBride, reigning NFL All-Pro tight end, made the catch.
"I like my odds on that," McBride said to analyst A.Q. Shipley postgame.
McBride was already a star. He had 126 catches last season, for goodness sake. But as the Cardinals have gone through this offseason, and found the spotlight on running back after drafting Jeremiyah Love and the debate about a Michael Wilson extension after Wilson's huge finish and the conversation about Marvin Harrison Jr.'s breakout and a new LaFleur offense, I kept coming back to the same thing, which I tweeted after McBride's second catch Sunday.
McBride is at the top of any Cardinals' roster ranking you might have.
I'm not sure how you don't see him as the league's best at the position.
Brissett said something on point after the game in L.A.: "He's as good as advertised and saying that is still a downplay of how good he is."
First play of the game, a 27-yard completion to McBride, who was open but who had to go up for the ball and absorb a hit as he was coming down. Why wouldn't you start with him? The TD, of course.
And all the while during his nine-catch, 95-yard day, McBride was chirping, at All-Pro safety Derwin James who was in coverage, at the Chargers sideline, at whomever.
McBride "only" played 80 percent of the snaps on Sunday. He was (admittedly) fatigued after only playing one play in the preseason, and football shape will come. Not that McBride was any less productive or impactful.
He has a QB he is vibing with in Brissett -- "I feel so confident with him back there every week" -- and with LaFleur using multiple tight ends, McBride in the slot is going to be a thing (Next Gen Stats had seven of McBride's catches from the slot.)
I don't know what McBride's statistical output might be at season's end, but I do know this: like Brissett, it's beginning to feel like whatever you say about McBride, you're only downplaying what he is.
