Arizona Cardinals tight end Trey McBride is having a productive season. He is also not having a great season.
How is this possible?
Well, he is catching passes at a ridiculous rate. However, he is not gaining many yards.
He is tied for the NFL lead with 49 receptions. Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigbais the other who has 49 catches on the season.
To lead the league in catches is amazing. To be mentioned with Smith-Njigba, the reigning Offensive Player of the Year, is fantastic.
However, there is quite the difference in the impact they are having.
Smith-Njigba is tied with McBride for the league lead in receptions. He also leads the NFL in receiving yards with 717.
McBride is 21st in yards with 361. He has the same number of catches
but barely half the yards.
McBride is pacing for 139 receptions, which would eclipse multiple records. He set the NFL single-season record for receptions by a tight end last season with 126. That total was a franchise single-season record for receptions by anyone.
He would obliterate that with 139 catches.
The problem is he is also pacing for only 1,022 yards. He had over 1,200 receiving yards last season.
He is averaging only 7.4 yards per reception on the season. The record for the lowest yards-per-reception average for a player with over 1,000 receiving yards was set by San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey, who averaged 8.7 yards per reception in 2019 for the Carolina Panthers in his one 1,000-yard receiving season.
Smith-Njigba has 36 first downs in his 49 catches. McBride has only 20, a rate of only 40.8%. Last season he picked up first downs on 63 of his 126 catches (50%).
What's the problem?
It isn't McBride.
He is catching 76.6% of his targets. His 64 targets are third in the league, behind Smith-Njigba's 65 and Dallas' Ceedee Lamb's 69.
He is doing his job. It isn't really a quarterback problem, either. Jacoby Brissett targets McBride more than anyone else on the team.
So it would appear that the offensive scheme by head coach Mike LaFleur is not utilizing him to his full potential. McBride is getting a ton of looks, but they are almost all short, underneath routes. He only has 130 yards after the catch, which is 34th in the league.
49ers tight end George Kittle averages 13.0 yards per catch this season. Kansas City's Travis Kelce is averaging 15.0 this season. Las Vegas' Brock Bowers is averaging 13.6.
Without utilizing McBride to his full potential, the Cardinals won't be able to unlock the offense they way it should look.
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This article originally appeared on Cards Wire: Despite catches, Trey McBride is being woefully underused by Cardinals
