INDIANAPOLIS — Colorado State tight end Trey McBride arrived here for the NFL scouting combine with a singular goal.
“Let them know everything I’m about and I should be the first tight end taken,” McBride said Wednesday morning at the Indiana Convention Center.
Since the fall, McBride, a 23-year-old native of Fort Morgan, has done everything right in constructing his case.
McBride caught 90 passes for 1,121 yards and one touchdown in 12 games for the Rams, winning the Mackey Award (nation’s top tight end) and earning first-team All-America recognition. And last month, he was voted the top tight end for the Senior Bowl’s National squad after a week of practices.
“The Senior Bowl was a tremendous opportunity,” McBride said. “I felt I had a really good week and showed I could compete against anybody in the country.”
The last CSU first-round draft pick was quarterback Kelly Stouffer to the Cardinals in 1987 (No. 6); the Rams have had only one second-round pick since — offensive tackle Ty Sambrailo to the Broncos in 2015 (No. 59).
“It’s a pretty good tight end draft,” NFL Network analyst Daniel Jeremiah said last week. “There isn’t a Kyle Pitts, but there is a ton of depth.”
Pitts was drafted fourth overall last year by Atlanta and made the Pro Bowl with a 68-catch, 1,028-yard (only one touchdown) season. The depth Jeremiah is referring to could allow clubs to wait until after the first round to draft a tight end. Good value additions in rounds 2-3 could be McBride, UCLA’s Greg Dulcich, Coastal Carolina’s Isaiah Likely and Texas A&M’s Jalen Wydermyer.
The Broncos should consider tight end depth in the later rounds. Noah Fant and Albert Okwuegbunam are under contract, but veteran blocker Eric Saubert is a free agent this month.
McBride said he met with the Broncos at the Senior Bowl but doesn’t have a 15-minute interview scheduled at the combine.
A three-sport standout (football, basketball and baseball) and three-star recruit in high school, McBride had seven catches in 12 games as a CSU freshman before breaking out in 2019 (45 catches for 560 yards and four touchdowns). The NFL soon appeared on his radar.
“Being from Fort Morgan, a small farm town, it was always a goal just to go playing college and when I got there, I just wanted to get on the field and help my team in any possible way,” he said. “(The NFL) didn’t really click in until these last couple years.”
In an abbreviated, four-game 2020 season, McBride caught 22 passes for 330 yards and four touchdowns. Last year, he had six games of at least 103 yards receiving.
“I think I’m a play-maker, a winner, a guy that can catch the ball, has strong, tough hands and is gritty in the run game as well,” he said. “To be the first (tight end) taken would be an unbelievable honor and I’m continuing to work to achieve that.”
