Trey McBride knew the question about his historic stretch was coming, yet he couldn't care less.
Last weekend, McBride passed Jimmy Graham for most receptions by a tight end in his first four seasons. He also took sole possession of second place for most consecutive games with at least five receptions by a tight end. McBride can tie Travis Kelce's 15 straight games on Sunday at State Farm Stadium against the Rams.
"Right now, I'm just kind of going through it and trying to do my job to the best my ability and try to win some football games," McBride said. "Honestly, that stuff doesn't really do it for me. I don't really care either way. I think it's great that I'm doing it, but I just try to do my job and win some football games. That's what I care about right now."
When McBride's playing career comes to an end, that'll likely be the time when he can appreciate those accomplishments, but that won't be for a long time. In the meantime, he's climbing up the rankings.
"I would have never guessed it," McBride said. "I've been successful the last couple of years, but I credit that to the O-Line, to the coaches, to the quarterbacks who give me the ball."
As of Monday, McBride led all tight ends in Pro Bowl votes.
But it's the reality of the loss from Sunday against the Buccaneers that continued to eat at him 24 hours later. He specifically mentioned the fourth-and-1 run the Cardinals couldn't convert early in the fourth quarter, a play in which McBride disengaged from his block much too early.
"That's a big play that's really eating at me," McBride said. "I could've strained a little bit harder. I could've been better in that plan. That's really tearing me up."
McBride isn't an all-world blocking tight end, not yet at least. It's an area of his game that he has repeatedly said he has wanted to improve. With Tip Reiman out for the season, their best blocking tight end, the Cardinals haven't ran 13 personnel nearly as often.
Instead, the Cardinals have used lineman like Josh Fryar and Kelvin Beachum as the "muscle hat" tight end.
However, the Cardinals offense is centered around McBride's ability to make a play with the ball in his hand.
"I think every week I find something new that I admire about his game and him as a person," quarterback Jacoby Brissett said. "His ability to play through a bunch of 'BS' -- he's not getting any (penalty) calls and not that you cry for calls. Then I go back (through the film) and he was even more open than I thought he was -- it is just stuff like that."
Brissett mentioned there was a moment when a player on the Buccaneers recognized that McBride was preparing to run a seam route and asked the safety for help in stopping him.
It did not work.
"His ability to just want the ball, want to be successful and want to win," Brissett said. "I remember my college coach always said (that) when you turn the film on, you want to make sure somebody can tell that you want to win. I think that's very evident. When you turn a film on, watch Trey."
Earlier in the week, McBride went viral for the selections he made for his NFL Mount Rushmore of tight ends.
Playing at this rate, McBride will land on the Mount Rushmore of many other people.
That's fine. But he's prefer talking about playing during victories.
"I want to win every single game and what we work to do is to win every single game," McBride said. "The one score games, the losses, it's tough. We're right there. We are a play away here, play away there. I'm still confident in our team. I know we're a good team."
