GLENDALE, ARIZONA - OCTOBER 19: Trey McBride #85 of the Arizona Cardinals celebrates after his receiving touchdown in the third quarter of a game against the Green Bay Packers at State Farm Stadium on October 19, 2025 in Glendale, Arizona. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

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In the last article that we posted, one of the top quarterbacks in fantasy football, Lamar Jackson, was discussed. This time around, we’ll be looking at Trey McBride who you can say the same for at tight end.

ForbesFantasy Football Outlook For Lamar Jackson In 2026By Steve Bradshaw

Coming out of college, McBride went to a smaller school, Colorado State, but was drafted 55th overall by the Arizona Cardinals. After not producing much as a rookie with 3.8 PPG in a PPR format, McBride would take a leap to solid production with 10.7 PPG in 2023.

It was the next year that McBride would take that step to elite status, scoring 15.6 PPG, and then in 2025 he had 18.6 PPG. At 26 years old, McBride has just gotten better every year.

The talent isn’t much of a question with McBride, but the situation around him is.

Trey McBride Fantasy Football Outlook in 2026

Jacoby Brissett looks like he’s going to be the Cardinals' starting quarterback in Week 1, and while his production wasn’t bad, it wasn’t very good either.

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Brissett is 33 years old, and he’s coming off a season where he had 23 touchdowns, eight interceptions and 3,366 passing yards in 12 starts. At the same time, we’ve never seen Brissett throw for more than 3,150 passing yards in a season before this, and he’s had two other years with at least 15 starts.

The stats aren’t great to begin with, and there’s reason to believe that as Brissett is now older, his numbers could regress. Then you have Carson Beck, who played well in his one preseason game, but he went in round three of the 2026 NFL draft, which isn’t great draft capital for a quarterback.

On top of that, Marvin Harrison Jr. has a ton of potential, and Michael Wilson played very well last year. McBride should still easily be the number one target, but if there’s less volume from Brissett, that’s a small worry.

Ultimately it comes down to the fact that McBride is a phenomenal player, he’s proven and is trending up at 26 years old. On the flip side, there’s not a lot to get excited about with the situation.

Trey McBride 2026 Fantasy Football Ranking

Right now, the FantasyPros expert consensus rankings have McBride as TE2, and his overall rank is at 20.

Despite the concerns, I’m comfortable taking McBride in leagues where you only have 1 FLEX option. That way, McBride can give you a big positional advantage in your league, even if he dips in production a bit and has 15 PPG.

Outside of McBride and Brock Bowers, the tight end position gets a lot more risky after that, so I’m not willing to fully avoid McBride. Due to the questions around the situation for McBride, he’s not a player I’m drafting no matter what in fantasy football, but you can feel good taking him around 20th overall.