TEMPE, Ariz. -- When Arizona Cardinals offensive coordinator Drew Petzing thinks about a play that embodies just how good of a tight end Trey McBride has become, he's taken back to Week 10 last season against the New York Jets.
On third-and-seven from the Arizona 33 with 10:20 left in the second quarter, Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray hit McBride for one of his career-high 111 receptions last season. But it's what happened after the catch that has stuck in Petzing's memory. McBride caught the pass at the 34 and, within a yard, Jets cornerback Sauce Gardner closed on McBride, wrapped him up and tried to drag the 246-pound tight end down despite a 56-pound weight difference.
As Gardner tried to wrestle McBride to the ground, McBride broke free, and took off for a 17-yard gain.
Still, 10 months later, that play epitomizes McBride to Petzing.
"That's not coaching," Petzing said. "That's not a good scheme ... I mean, it wasn't a bad scheme. Sauce is a really good player, he covered it really well, and we're moving the chains and just had an explosive pass. When you have a guy that can do things like that, you have to give them that opportunity early and often."
That's why, entering Week 1 against the New Orleans Saints on Sunday, Petzing believes McBride can pick up this season where he left off after the first 1,000-yard and 100-catch year of his young career. And that's also why Petzing doesn't mind if McBride leads the Cardinals in receiving yards, despite not being a receiver -- even if recent history says it doesn't necessarily lead to winning seasons.
Petzing has a list of bullet points that he believes are the key reasons why Arizona can generate explosive plays, which he constitutes as gains of 16 yards or more for a pass and at least 12 for a run.
The top of about five bullet points is to utilize the strengths of the Cardinals' best players. A strength, Petzing explained, is that those players do things other players aren't capable of.
Like McBride.
His ability to catch and block not only earned him a four-year extension worth $76 million this past offseason, which, for 26 days, made him the highest-paid tight end in NFL history, the skills also make him one of the league's most dynamic offensive weapons. Petzing, for one, has him ranked as one of the top two tight ends in the league, with Brock Bowers of the Las Vegas Raiders.
And he's not the only one. McBride has also caught the attention of the NFL's elite defenders.
Denver Broncos cornerback Pat Surtain II said it's "crazy" to think that McBride caught 100 passes last season.
"It seems like he's running routes like a receiver out there," Surtain said. "That just shows the type of player he is. He's willing to do the dirty work, block, and make explosive plays in the pass game.'
Last season, McBride was one of six tight ends who led his team in receiving yards, only the second time in NFL history in which six or more tight ends led their teams in receiving, according to the Elias Sports Bureau (joining 1973). Only one -- Kansas City's Travis Kelce -- was on a team with a winning record. Four of the six were on last-place teams; McBride's Cardinals finished second to last in the NFC West last season.
Since 2019, if the tight end wasn't named George Kittle, Zach Ertz or Mark Andrews -- all probably future Hall of Famers -- the five teams with tight ends who led their teams in receiving, including McBride leading the 2023 Cardinals, didn't have winning records.
As long as Murray isn't forcing throws to McBride while defenses are actively trying to take him away, Cardinals coach Jonathan Gannon doesn't mind McBride being a focal point of the Cardinals' passing game.
"Whatever you got to do to win a game, honestly. I mean, that's how I really feel," Gannon said. "What do we need to do to win a game? And if that's the tight end gets ya a bunch of balls or if that's the tight end getting nothing, if we win the game, that's OK."
McBride believes the Cardinals have enough talented pass-catchers that for any defense to focus on one would be problematic.
"They can't cover us all," McBride said. "And if they try to double one guy, then the other guy's going to be one-on-one. So I'm confident in all of our guys to win one-on-one matchups. I'm confident in all of us to go out there and make plays when the ball comes to them. And I know that's going to happen this year."
With McBride coming off his breakout season, Petzing and Gannon have discussed how they expect defenses to approach the Pro Bowler.
Petzing doesn't think defenses can solely use a cornerback on McBride, like teams can against other top-tier tight ends, because of McBride's role in the Cardinals' run game, as well as because of what kind of formations and personnel Petzing deploys.
"It's like OK, you can cover Trey with a corner, but is that corner now defending the run in the box? Do you usually want a safety down there?" Petzing said. "Well, that means he's on a safety again. There's not a ton of ways, in my opinion, for them to completely prevent that from happening.
"To some extent now in obvious passing situations, I would certainly expect him to get the premier cover guys."
Petzing can see defenses putting a safety on McBride on first and second down to try to eliminate him from factoring into those downs.
At the same time, Petzing said, if McBride is having a big game, he won't be surprised if a defense sends its top cover guy to defend McBride. But, Petzing added, who a defense sends McBride's way will largely depend on how comfortable they feel "putting a bad run defender in the run game because he's going to be in there blocking plenty -- and he's good at it."
McBride knows what's coming. He knows it's not a secret anymore that both Murray is going to look his way often and how defenses are going to approach stopping him.
Throughout last season, McBride began to better understand how defenses were covering him and who they were using. From there, his approach was twofold: Be consistent and win his matchup.
Among his goals for this season is to continue doing both.
Being consistent is important for the 25-year-old because he has seen the greats do it, and he eventually wants to be part of that conversation.
When it comes to winning his matchups, McBride is the kind of player who keeps defensive backs and defensive coordinators awake.
"He definitely creates a mismatch because he has the ability to line up and play targets like a receiver, but also knowing his size, he has the ability to box out smaller DBs that come in his way," Surtain said. "So, I mean that could be a headache at time for defenses.
"He's an all-around great tight end."