Cardinals draft top-rated tight end Trey McBride with their second-round pick

After landing the No.2 wide receiver they’ve been hoping to find — acquiring Marquise “Hollywood” Brown in a trade with the Ravens on Thursday night — the Cardinals entered the second day of the NFL draft with some pressure off their shoulders.

Not only did they check off one of their biggest needs with the addition of Brown, but they used their first-round pick on a proven commodity, not a prospect they have to develop over time and hope pans out. They also were able to acquire another Day Two draft pick, receiving a third rounder from the Ravens (No.100 overall) along with Brown in exchange for the 23rd selection overall.

“That, to me, was icing on the cake,” General Manager Steve Keim said. “To be able to get a guy like this, who’s had this kind of production and fit our offense the way he will. Then to be able to go back and get the 100th pick, now all the sudden we’re picking two and three, it gives us a number of different options. I like a lot of the guys up there that are still left, and we’ll continue to monitor the board and see where it goes.”

With their first of three picks on Friday, Keim said it couldn’t have gone much better in the second round as the Cardinals were able to further add to their offense by snagging tight end Trey McBride from Colorado State with the 55th overall selection.

The consensus top-rated tight end in the draft, the 6-foot-4, 246-pound McBride won the John Mackey Award last season as the nation’s best tight end and according to Keim, he was far and away the highest-rated player overall still on their draft board.

“By far, highest grade,” Keim said. “People ask, ‘What do you like about him?’ The question is what’s there not to like about him. Special human, special player, rare stats. Over 1,000 yards as a tight end, 90 some catches, the guy can do it all. He can play in-line, he can flex, he can motion, he can play out of the backfield. He’s got tremendous hands, great catching radius, really strong in a crowd.

“Character is off the charts. Three-time captain. Phenomenal leader. We’re just thankful he was there.”

Keim said there wasn’t an edge rusher the Cardinals valued at No.55, but they found one in the third round in San Diego State defensive end Cameron Thomas with their own pick at No.87. Thomas, 6-4, 267, had 71 tackles and 11½ sacks last season and tied the Mountain West Conference single-season record with 20½ tackles for loss.

Arizona then used the 100th overall pick it received from Baltimore on another edge rusher, selecting Myjai Sanders from Cincinnati. Sanders, 6-5, 228, said he hopes to eventually improve his weight to 255 pounds to find his niche with the Cardinals. A bendy, slippery pass rusher with unorthodox moves, he had seven sacks and 10½ tackles for loss in 2020 before finishing with 2½ sacks and 7½ tackles for loss this past season.

Keim said both players project as outside linebackers, a position the Cardinals needed to address following the free-agent departure of Chandler Jones, the franchise's all-time leader in sacks.

McBride, a two-way player in that he can block just as well as he can catch passes and run routes, seems like a bit of a luxury pick for the Cardinals considering they signed veteran tight end Zach Ertz to a three-year contract extension, brought back Maxx Williams and also added another tight end in Stephen Anderson through free agency. Keim, however, said drafting McBride is a move built for the future.

“We’ve got a young quarterback (Kyler Murray) that we’re excited about, we have a 24-year-old receiver (Brown) we added yesterday, and we just added another young, dynamic playmaker as a tight end, so it made sense in every way.”

That being said, the Cardinals almost moved out of the 55th spot as the second round unfolded. Keim said he came close to both trading up in the second and trading back to acquire additional capital. In the end, however, he and coach Kliff Kingsbury were excited about landing McBride.

“You can never have enough guys like that with his athleticism, the pass-catching ability,” Kingsbury said, adding, “Just tremendous upside, tremendous athlete and like Steve said, the character is through the roof. … We did not think this guy would be there. He was way up on our board.”

McBride set school records last season with 90 receptions for 1,121 yards, although he only scored one touchdown. On the final play of his collegiate career, he ran a fake punt 69 yards for a score against Nevada.

“I’m excited to get in there and learn and really grow as a tight end,” McBride said during a conference call after being drafted. “(Learning) from such a great tight end (in Ertz), Zach’s played such a long time and he’s been so successful so to be around a guy like him and learn from him is just something I’m so excited to be a part of.”

The highlight for the Cardinals thus far remains the unexpected Thursday night trade to acquire Brown, the deep-threat wideout expected to start opposite of star DeAndre Hopkins.

Brown has been looking to move on from Baltimore for some time, saying the run-heavy offense that also catered mostly to tight end Mark Andrews simply didn’t fit his unique skill set and prevented him utilizing his full talents. Coming to the Cardinals, he said, made perfect sense and it reunited him with his former college teammate at Oklahoma — quarterback Kyler Murray.

“I always wanted to be here,” Brown said Friday morning during his introductory news conference at the team’s Tempe training facility. “Me and Kyler talked about it back in January, February and for it to actually happen is crazy.”

Brown said he knew a trade with the Cardinals was in the works for about a week, adding he didn’t think it would end up happening. Two other teams entered the picture, the Packers and Chiefs, and there was no telling how things would play out.

In the meantime, he was regularly working out with Murray in the Dallas area and catching passes from the former Heisman Trophy winner while negotiations continued. Murray kept pestering Brown to get the latest updates, but Brown had nothing to tell him.

“He knew it possibly could happen, but he didn’t know it actually did happen,” Brown said, laughing. “He was checking in trying to get the scoop, but I just had to say, ‘I don’t know, Kyler. I’m trying to find out.’ ”

When Brown finally got the call that the trade had been consummated, he didn’t tell Murray right away. He wanted to let both teams make the announcement first.

“I could have (told him),” Brown said, “but I kind of wanted it to be a surprise for him as well.”

Murray has been offering his advice to Keim regarding all kinds of potential roster moves, from free agents to draft prospects and yes, even players he’d like to see come to Arizona via a trade. So when the trade for Brown became official and Murray got the news, he naturally took full credit for the move, right?

“He definitely was like, ‘I did this.’ Definitely,” Brown said.

Have an opinion on the Arizona Cardinals? Reach McManaman at bob.mcmanaman@arizonarepublic.com and follow him on Twitter @azbobbymac. Listen to him live on Fox Sports 910-AM every Tuesday afternoon at 3:30 on Calling All Sports with Roc and Manuch.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona Cardinals add tight end in 2nd round of NFL Draft