The Arizona Cardinals have been in sell mode for weeks, shipping Marvin Harrison Jr. to Houston in October and trading quarterback Jacoby Brissett to Baltimore on Friday. Brissett’s exit wasn’t a shock after Mike LaFleur pulled him during the Week 8, 33-30 overtime win in Dallas. Now, with the 3-5 team preparing for Minshew’s first start at Seattle, and Tuesday’s 4 p.m. ET trade deadline looming, the question was whether their biggest remaining star was next on the chopping block.

So when the Denver Broncos called about Trey McBride, the natural question was whether he’d be the next to go. NFL insider Adam Schefter reported that the Broncos have been sniffing around the league for a tight end, but Arizona isn’t biting.

“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,” Schefter wrote on X. “The Cardinals made it very clear they have zero intention of trading McBride.”

Short and clear. Schefter’s report names no other team in the McBride mix and no formal offer sitting on the table. And judging by Arizona’s stance, that’s not changing any time soon. But Denver’s motivations are far from a mystery.

The Broncos sit at 6-2, with Bo Nix throwing to Courtland Sutton and Jaylen Waddle, who arrived via trade from Miami this offseason. Tight end remains the glaring weakness where production has thinned out. Even Engram, playing on a two-year, $23 million deal signed in March 2025, has managed just 13 catches for 136 yards and a touchdown this year after hauling in 60 for 461 last season. Backup Nate Adkins, meanwhile, has six catches for 44 yards alongside three scores.

Denver saw this positional gap up close in Week 7. McBride caught 10 of 13 targets for 111 yards and a score – his season high in yardage – during Arizona’s hard-fought 30-16 loss. By comparison, Engram caught one of three targets for two yards while playing only 24 of Denver’s 61 offensive snaps.

McBride’s production also explains Arizona’s unyielding stance. The 26-year-old leads the entire league with 66 catches, good for 544 yards and five touchdowns on 86 targets this season. He added seven catches for 72 yards and a score in the Dallas comeback victory where Minshew took over. All of this follows a 126-catch campaign in 2025 that broke Zach Ertz’s single-season franchise record for tight ends.

Since arriving as a second-round pick in 2022, McBride has amassed 413 catches, 4,019 yards, and 22 touchdowns. But if the numbers aren’t enough, the contract details point toward the same conclusion.

Arizona locked up Trey McBride with a four-year, $76 million extension last April, featuring $43 million in guaranteed money, making him the league’s highest-paid tight end at the time. His deal runs through 2029, with Over the Cap listing his cap hit at $8.7 million this year and $16.1 million in 2027. While Schefter didn’t spell out Arizona’s internal reasoning, McBride is a young star locked into a long-term contract. Compared to an aging veteran on an expiring contract like Brissett, teams would have to give up a lot of capital to land McBride.

For now, both teams move forward to Week 9. Arizona visits the Seattle Seahawks with McBride securely in the fold and Minshew making his first start under center. Denver, meanwhile, prepares for a trip to Charlotte to take on the Carolina Panthers. With the deadline around the corner, we’ll just have to wait a bit more to see whether Arizona changes its mind.