One of the most experienced coaches on the Arizona Cardinals staff, tight ends coach Ben Steele (only special teams coordinator Jeff Rodgers has more years in the NFL than his 11) is grateful to be mentoring one of the best tight ends in the league.
In fact, Steele unabashedly refers to Trey McBride as elite even with him completing his third season in the league.
Steele met with the media Friday and talked extensively about McBride along with other tight ends in the room. The conversation is presented in our weekly Q&A.
Q: What defensive attention is Trey McBride seeing these days?
A: He’s obviously seeing a lot of attention and deservedly so. He’s been explosive in the pass game and just unfortunate that we haven’t been able to get that connection in the end zone. But at the end of the day, it’s about wins and Trey believes that too if it means him scoring or someone else scoring. Obviously, we’d like to get him in the end zone. He’s one of our top players on the team. Elite in all phases. I mean you really couldn’t try to not score and throw Trey the ball this many times. Almost impossible. It’s crazy.
Q: Where have you seen the most growth over the season?
A: Well to me, and this is something that I kind of remind him of in the stretch line every day: Like the great ones show up every day and so to me that’s his biggest thing is consistency. Doing the little things right. Last year, where the focus was just making sure we get our depth on routes, details of little things like that and he’s been knocking it out of the park and this year’s shown that.
Q: Has the focus this season been more little tweaks? Like, let’s take good to great, that type of thing?
A: For sure. Yeah, definitely. And to me, it’s like, he’s one of the top tight ends in the league, not just because of what he does in the pass game. He had nine catches for 90 yards or whatever (9-for-87) last week. But his best play in my opinion last week was when he washed their defensive end, probably their best defensive end, all the way down in the A gap and sprung a run for James (Conner) for 53 yards. To me, that was his best play. I know all the catches are fun and him hurdling people are fun to watch and everyone likes that. But he’s a complete tight end, which to me, that’s what a tight end does. They’re not just slow receivers. If you don’t block, you’re just a slow receiver. So he runs through people’s face and he blocks people at the point of attack and most of the guys that get voted to the Pro Bowl, they don’t do that. They’re slow receivers, in my opinion.
Q: He’s talked about that a lot, about improving over the last year, improving as a blocker. Is that just technique or is a lot of it just want-to?
A: Well, most of it is want-to for sure, but doing it effectively is definitely technique and that’s something he’s definitely improved on from last year.
Q: This year his catch-to-target ratio is really high. What goes into that? What do you attribute that to?
A: God. (laughter) He’s got some natural talent and ability. He’s done it his entire college career and he’s continuing to do it now. To me, it’s learning the ins and outs of the defenses and how to attack coverages, how to get leverage on the defender and then how to burst away and get open. And he’s got a huge catch radius. He goes up and makes unbelievable catches. So, when he doesn’t make catches, it’s like I expect him to make the tough ones, every single ball that’s thrown to him. And he does too. So yeah, he’s definitely just got some natural talent, too. It’s obviously a big factor.
Q: How hard is he on himself?
A: I think the best players in all sports are super hard on themselves because they have a different standard than average players. And that’s the separation between average and good and great. So yeah, he’s pretty hard.
Q: As it relates to the Pro Bowl, what would it mean to you, to him, to the team if he’s selected?
A: I mean it would be awesome. Unbelievable for him. It would be a tribute to his work. He definitely is deserving of it. It would be a shame if he doesn’t.
Q: Because of what other teams are doing, has that contributed in the last couple weeks to not doing a whole lot in the first half and then in the second half, things change?
A: It just kind of plays out that way. Obviously, he’s a big part of our offense and without just forcing the ball to him. Like, we call plays that are designed to get the ball to him. It’s just coverage-wise dictates a lot of where the ball goes and it just hasn’t worked out for one reason or another early in the game. And then, like two weeks ago, he didn’t have any catches in the first half and then he ends up with (seven) at the end of the game. So, he’s going to get his targets. He knows that and he’s pretty patient with that.
Q: Where have you seen Tip (Reiman) develop the most?
A: Tip has done a great job. Being a rookie, it’s all about just getting your feet wet and kind of learning. Early in the year, he didn’t know what he didn’t know. So, experience and over the course of the year, he gets better every single week and last week he played really well.
Q: And that’s big, right, because he’s a large part of the offense, especially with the way you guys are trying to run the football?
A: He’s a huge part of the offense. All of our guys are asked to block and obviously Tip being the massive human that he is and he’s got a huge head. So him putting his huge melon on people is obviously an advantage for us. But yeah, he’s done a great job. I’m really impressed and glad to have him in the room.
Q: Whenever you caught Trey at Colorado State, just watching his games on tape, did you foresee this from him being one of the top five tight ends in the league, maybe top three?
A: I do a process of going back and watching guys and see how they end up, whether their expectations were lower or higher or whatever. And if you go back and watch his tape, he’s doing everything now that he did in college and probably even better. So it’s not a surprise at all. I remember watching his tape and he’s hurdling guys. The ball security, that’s not my standard at times, but he doesn’t put the ball on the ground and he’s got a great feel and awareness of knowing where defenders are. So yeah, I’m not surprised at all.
Q: When you talk about dual-threat tight ends, you mentioned some other guys get a lot of accolades, but they’re sort of one-dimensional. How much more valuable is he because he does both and he’s willing to get his nose dirty?
A: It’s invaluable because of how … you can’t play a guy that’s not willing to block on first down every play, right? Like I’m trying to find ways to get Trey off the field because there’s not really a play that I wish we had someone else. He can do it all. So, whether it’s play-action, protection, run game, he can be in on first and second down. He’s not just a third-down receiving tight end. So it keeps us multiple and lets us do a lot of stuff, which is why we run the ball really well. Then he can go down the field and obviously make explosive catches and that’s why we are good throwing the ball to him. So yeah, it’s huge to me. Those are the best tight ends. The one-dimensional guys? Like, no thanks.
Q: How much do you think Elijah (Higgins) has been contributing maybe somewhat quietly in the offense on a consistent basis?
A: I think it is quiet too, because I think what he does kind of goes unnoticed because he’s doing some awesome stuff out of the backfield fitting on linebackers. A lot of our run game has spurred because of him and he keeps getting better too. I’m really happy with his progress. He’s had a great year.
Q: When it comes to Trey’s hurdles, are you OK with him doing it as long as he doesn’t fumble? But is it an art, is it kind of a skill? How would you describe that?
A: Well, it definitely is a skill and he definitely has a good feel of when to do it, when not to do it. I tell him not to do it, but I also say that was really cool. (laughter) But don’t do that because obviously you put yourself in danger of getting … I show him clips of other guys doing it at bad times and just getting murdered. But he’s got a great feel of when to do it. I mean, the dude is just explosive and he gets up and it’s hard to tackle him high. (Jets cornerback) Sauce Gardner learned that the hard way, because that was a huge play for us on offense when he broke that tackle. When they do go low, I mean you never know. Trey’s a wild man and he might go high.
Q: I remember last year we asked you about it, and you said you prefer that he didn’t do it. But I guess you’ve become accustomed that he’s going to do it. When the opportunity is there, he’s gonna do it.
A: Obviously the coaching point for me is hold the ball tight. Bring the ball to your body and your chest and protect yourself. But it is cool.
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