Broncos check on Trey McBride, Cardinals say no

Denver has been calling around the league about tight ends, and Schefter says one of those calls went as high as it possibly could.

Adam Schefter

@AdamSchefter

The Denver Broncos have checked in around the league on tight ends, going so far as to ambitiously -- and some would say outrageously -- check on Cardinals star Trey McBride, who is from Fort Morgan, Colorado, and played at Colorado State. The Cardinals made it very clear they have zero intention of trading McBride.

Adam Schefter

@AdamSchefter

The latest trade scuttlebutt across the league, which includes the Colts being among several NFL teams mulling trade offers as Tuesday’s deadline looms, via @RapSheet and me. t.co/rHPUMTgaks

Ambitious and outrageous are both fair. You can see why Denver would try, though. McBride is from Fort Morgan, Colorado, a couple hours up I-76 from Mile High, and he played his college ball at Colorado State in Fort Collins. Calling about him is the Broncos asking whether a hometown kid wants to come home. The answer from Arizona was zero. Not a counter, not a high asking price, just zero.

The money explains a lot of that. In April 2025 the Cardinals signed McBride to a 4-year, $76 million extension that runs through the 2029 season, with $43 million guaranteed. At the time it made him the highest-paid tight end in NFL history, ahead of George Kittle's total value. He earned it with a Pro Bowl season in 2024. Teams don't hand out a record deal and then shop the guy 18 months later. He's the centerpiece of their passing game and they paid him that way.

The McBride call was one item in a bigger roundup Schefter and Ian Rapoport put out on the deadline market. That report also had the Colts among several teams weighing trade offers as Tuesday gets closer.

For Denver, the takeaway isn't really McBride. It's that the front office clearly thinks tight end is the hole worth fixing right now, and it was willing to aim at the top of the market to fix it. Once Arizona hung up, the Broncos reportedly moved on to other options, so the McBride call reads more like them setting their ceiling than a real negotiation.

Next up is Tuesday's deadline. If Denver adds a tight end, it'll be a step down from McBride, and fans will spend the rest of the season thinking about the Fort Morgan kid catching passes in Arizona. If nothing gets done, the shopping trip still tells you where the Broncos think they're short.