Trey McBride Camp Update — August 31: The Tight End Room Was Rebuilt Around Him
2026 NFL Season · Monday, Aug 31
Cut day remade the tight end room: Tip Reiman went to reserve/PUP for at least four games, two tight ends were waived, and Arizona traded a draft pick to Jacksonville for Hunter Long. McBride's own name appears nowhere on the cut list, and the week's only charted action for him was a two-point conversion in Wednesday's joint practice.
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Cut day tore down and rebuilt the tight end room around Trey McBride in about 24 hours. Tip Reiman moved from active PUP to reserve/PUP, ruling him out for at least the first four games, and Rivaldo Fairweather and Teagan Quitoriano were both waived, per Jess Root at Cards Wire. The same day, Arizona sent a future sixth-round pick to Jacksonville for tight end Hunter Long and a future seventh — NFL Media first reported the trade, with Ian Rapoport adding the compensation, per Josh Alper at Pro Football Talk. Put the moves side by side and the shape is clear: the position lost bodies and Arizona replaced one by trade. Long caught 12 passes for 85 yards for Jacksonville last season, about three percent of that team's targets — our numbers. Whatever the Cardinals bought, it was not competition for the receiving work.
McBride himself was not among the 34 players Arizona cut to reach 53, per Root, and no reporter in our sourcing has stated his roster status outright. His one charted moment of the week came in Wednesday's joint practice at Green Bay, where he scored a two-point conversion to win the second-unit scenario, per Darren Urban at the team website. He did not play in Friday's finale; the starters sat, per Donnie Druin at Sports Illustrated.
Which answers the last episode's watch line, mostly in the negative. We wanted his target share if the starters played the finale — they did not play, so no share exists, and that makes a second straight week with no charted target number attached to his name. The practice-file question rolls into the regular season, where the files start meaning something.
Back in June we called McBride the simplest bet on the Arizona roster, built on target volume: last season he drew 169 targets and caught 126 passes for 1239 yards and 11 touchdowns, sixth in the NFL in receiving yards — our numbers. Cutdown did not touch any of that. It reinforced it: the front office spent a pick on a complement rather than a competitor. We'll pick this back up when the season's first practice reports start to land.
_Data via nflverse._
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