More tight end moments? Steve Bush catching a key late TD to set up the possibility of McCown-to-Poole in 2003. Jermaine Gresham’s big back-of-the-end-zone TD in the Stanton Shuffle win in Seattle in 2015. Leonard Pope nearly “tackling” Larry Fitzgerald just short of the goal line in the 2008 NFC Championship. (Spoiler alert: Fitz was credited with the TD, and the Cardinals won.)

But until McBride there have been few that resonated long term. Ertz battled injuries. I remember guys like Rob Awalt, Wendell Gaines, Johnny McWilliams, Freddie Jones, Anthony Becht, Rob Housler, Darren Fells, Ricky Seals-Jones and Maxx Williams. It’s cool if you don’t.

McBride isn’t even the only Cardinals tight end named McBride. Oscar McBride teamed with Gaines in the mid-1990s.

Bruce Arians, coaching in an era when Rob Gronkowski was awesome and Dallas Clark filled the stat sheet, once said he thought Steelers tight end Heath Miller was the best at his position in the game. Catches were nice. Blocking was also nice.

Trey McBride blocks. Know that.

“If he’s just a receiving tight end, those are the guys that go to the Pro Bowls and I get that, but we have to take you out on first down and it’s not a secret if we are running or passing,” tight ends coach Ben Steele said “There is a lot of game planning involved in that that we don’t want to tip our hand.

“The biggest part of blocking is the want-to, and Trey doesn’t want to come out of the game. Ever.”

The Cardinals get things for McBride they have rarely – dare I say never – seen against their tight ends. Steele said the Colts used a defensive end to chip McBride as he went out on his routes. McBride has noted a couple of times how much more difficult he has found dealing with defenses now, and Steele said when he showed up two years ago he warned McBride teams will have a plan against him.

“They try to take me away,” McBride said. “Makes it a little more fun and more rewarding when they try to take you away.”

Now, McBride is a touchdown maker, his four scoring grabs this season are already more than any of his first three seasons. Yes, his 47 catches are ahead of his pace from last season but his 421 yards is a little behind, and that has been frustrating. But McBride knows he is also coming off his best two games of the season.

And that is a good way to celebrate the holiday.