Trey McBride Excited to 'Change the Narrative' After Frustrating Performance

ARIZONA -- Nobody is harder on Arizona Cardinals TE Trey McBride than the man himself.

McBride is putting the finishing touches on one of the best seasons for a tight end in NFL history, crashing numerous league and franchise records in spite of Arizona's down season.

Yet in Week 16's loss to the Atlanta Falcons, McBride appeared... human. He didn't dominate per usual, being held to just four receptions and 28 yards.

It was a surprising performance for McBride, for probably the first time all season.

"I was frustrated, obviously. I was mad at myself more than anything. Nothing that they (Atlanta) or Jacoby (Brissett) did. I was mad at myself for a few plays I left out there. That end zone play in particular, I feel like I've caught much harder balls than that. I'm really mad at myself for not catching that," McBride told reporters in the locker room this week.

"Then they come back to me the next play and I get broken up with the safety (Jessie) Bates, that's another play I've made a million times too. I was just more mad at myself for my performance -- it was nothing that they did or nothing that our team did. It was me. I got to be better. It's been eating at me all week.

"I'm excited to have an opportunity this week to change the narrative."

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Trey McBride said last game's performance was eating at him to start the week of prep for the Bengals and is focused on "changing the narrative" in Cincinnati.

Given the totality of his season plus a Bengals D that is getting absolutely wrecked by TEs, Sunday is shaping up to be… pic.twitter.com/FxNTGJ73PN
— Tyler Drake (@Tdrake4sports) December 26, 2025

Cardinals quarterback Jacoby Brissett says low numbers like that won't happen often for McBride, who has undoubtedly been the team's top player in 2025.

"Yeah, they aren't going to happen very often, that's for sure. He came up to me after the game and goes, 'Man, this will never happen again.' I'm like, 'Well, I hope not either, but it probably will.' They did a good job of trying to find ways to mitigate what he can do, but like you said, he's just such a good player," Brissett said Wednesday.

"He does so many good things for us. I think he did a really good job. I mean, they took away some of the stuff in the pass game, but (he was) in the run game, which helped propel our run game a lot. He made a lot of plays for us, and he's just one of those players that, I always say, his will to win is going to supersede a lot of the things that defenses try to do against him."