During the Arizona Cardinals‘ 20-13 loss to the Detroit Lions on Sunday, tight end Trey McBride exited the game in the fourth quarter. The second-year standout
What happened to McBride, and is he at risk of missing Week 4?
Trey McBride’s Status
McBride caught a nine-yard pass from Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray with roughly six minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, and he had a helmet-to-helmet collision with Lions defensive back Brian Branch.
McBride and Branch both left the game and went to their respective injury tents. Shortly after, the Cardinals announced that McBride was being evaluated for a concussion.
Terrifying play on this collision with Brian Branch and Trey McBride. pic.twitter.com/Ccf5aiOkkZ
— Henry McKenna (@henrycmckenna) September 22, 2024
If McBride suffered a brain injury, he could have trouble clearing the NFL’s concussion protocol in time for the Cardinals’ Week 4 game against the Washington Commanders.
McBride remains in concussion protocol and has not been able to return to the practice field this week. After missing Wednesday, the tight end was still not practicing on Thursday. Ahead of practice on Thursday, Cardinals’ head coach Jonathan Gannon ruled out McBride for Week 4.
The Cardinals have three other tight ends on their 53-man roster: Elijah Higgins, Tip Reiman, and Travis Vokolek. Higgins scored a touchdown against the Los Angeles Rams last week. Reiman is a third-round rookie out of Illinois.
A second-round pick in the 2022 NFL Draft, McBride broke out for 81 catches, 825 yards, and three touchdowns in his second pro campaign.
Fantasy Implications of McBride’s Injury
The absence of McBride raises some serious questions in terms of fantasy options for the Cardinals. McBride is second on the team in terms of targets with 21 but leads the team in receptions with 14. The next highest tight end on the team is Higgins, with four receptions from four targets for 41 yards and a touchdown.
The expectation from those numbers is that Higgins would pick up the extra work with McBride out. Higgins has played on 77 offensive snaps this year, while Reiman is at 72 snaps. However, Higgins is the tight end that the Cardinals are typically using more when they need a tight end other than McBride to run routes.
Higgins has played on 33 passing snaps, running routes on 30 of them. In contrast, Reiman has run routes on just 17 of 27 passing snaps. Higgins has yet to see more than two targets in a game this season, but that should change with McBride out. Even so, you should not rush out to add Higgins because we could see Reiman getting involved, and there is a chance the Cardinals just look elsewhere.
Marvin Harrison Jr. has averaged 7.33 targets per game, while Greg Dortch is at 5.33 and Michael Wilson at 4.33. With seven targets per game available while McBride is out, each of those three receivers should see a slight boost in opportunities in Week 4.
There is a longer-term potential impact here because concussions can be multi-week injuries. However, the typical return to play time is around 10 days after a concussion occurs. Therefore, we would expect to see McBride back on the field in Week 5 aginst the San Francisco 49ers, but fantasy managers should not count on it.