Entering this weekend, no one felt that the Arizona Cardinals’ tight end room needing addressing early on in the draft, but they did it anyway.
They selected Colorado State tight end Trey McBride in the second round, 55th overall in the draft.
While they clearly have other more pressing needs on the team — outside linebacker, cornerback, defensive line and offensive line — staying true to their draft philosophy.
General manager Steve Keim preaches staying with their draft board and taking the best player available. That was McBride in this case.
“By far, highest grade,” Keim said after McBride was selected on Friday. “People ask what do you like about him. The question is what’s not to like about him? Special human, special player.”
Keim had more to say about McBride.
“This guy was by far the highest-graded for us,” he said. “He was sticking out and as it got closer to the pick, we were all obviously getting a little nervous that somebody would select him ahead of us, but we were thankful he was there.”
Had the Cardinals not selected him with the 55th pick, I was told he would have been drafted by the Dallas Cowboys with the very next selection.
“The guy can do it all,” Keim added. “He can play inline. He can flex. He can motion. He can play out of the backfield. He’s got tremendous hands, great catching radius, and really strong in a crowd.”
He raved about how he will be in the locker room, too.
“His character is off the charts — three-time captain, phenomenal leader,” he said.
The Cardinals were clearly excited about landing him.
There is another reason why it is a good thing, even with Zach Ertz and Maxx Williams both under contract.
“We’ve got a young quarterback that we are excited about,” Keim said. “We have a 24-year-old receiver we added yesterday (Marquise Brown) and we just added another young dynamic playmaker as a tight end. So, it made sense in every way.”
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