Trey McBride didn’t hide the tension behind his new deal with the Arizona Cardinals. The star tight end said the contract process dragged and started with an offer of about $12 million per year before the sides eventually landed on a four-year, $76 million extension.
On Bussin’ With the Boys, McBride said he even thought about taking his chances in free agency if Arizona didn’t come up. “Maybe I go somewhere else,” McBride said. “Maybe I play my last year and explore my options, and then, finally, they wanted to get it done.”
The market likely would have been waiting. McBride backed that up with a massive 2025 season, finishing with 126 catches for 1,239 yards and 11 touchdowns. Arizona later pushed its offer to $64 million, or $16 million a year, and McBride said he was ready to jump on it immediately.
“I was like, ‘(Expletive), dude. 64 (million). Oh my god.
I could buy so many Zips wings,'” McBride said. “I’m like, just everything that’s going through my mind, I’m like, ‘Dude, let’s lock it in.'”
His agent told him to hold off, and that patience ended up paying off. The Cardinals raised the number again and made McBride the highest-paid tight end in the NFL at the time, though George Kittle has since moved past that mark.
McBride also gave a blunt assessment of the Cardinals’ home crowd. In his view, Arizona’s makeup makes it tough to build a true home-field edge because so many people in the state came from somewhere else.
“It’s like, living in Arizona, everyone, no one’s from Arizona,” McBride said. “Everyone comes and has moved in from another state. So, they’re all fans of their own teams.”
He added that he hopes the atmosphere changes if the team starts winning more. “So, it’s a tough deal,” McBride said. “Hopefully, we start winning some games and we can bring some of those fans back.”
McBride also pointed to Seattle as the toughest road setting in the league, praising the Seahawks’ crowd and saying Lumen Field turns hostile whenever the Cardinals go there. For all the frustration he described during negotiations, though, there’s no sign he wants out of Arizona. The extension keeps him in place, and McBride sounds content where he is.
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