Cardinals' TE Coach Critical to Success

Arizona Cardinals tight end coach Ben Steele could hold the keys to the team's offensive success in 2024.

Mar 8, 2023; Tempe, AZ, USA; Arizona Cardinals tight ends coach Ben Steele speaks with the media as he is introduced as a new hire with fellow coaches at Arizona Cardinals facility. Nfl Cardinals Offensive Assistant Coaches Introduction / Joe Rondone/The Republic / USA TODAY

Position coaches tend to be the forgotten element when looking at the success of a football organization in the NFL. Head coaches, coordinators, and even general managers tend to pull most of the focus toward themselves and the average fan forgets that for the players they most admire on their favorite team, it is often their position coach that influences them the most.

The abilities of these position coaches can have a significant impact on the overall success of a team. It's been shown time and again that the right offensive line coach can positively impact the run and passing game, but the forgotten element here is in the dual role of the tight end in the modern NFL.

The tight end fulfills an interesting and vitally important dual role in the offense - and nowhere can that duality be better seen than in the differences between Arizona Cardinals tight ends Trey McBride and the recently drafted Tip Reiman.

After a quiet rookie season, McBride emerged as a major component of the Cardinals' offense in 2023. He finished the season in the top seven of all tight ends in the NFL with 81 receptions on 105 targets for 825 yards.

He was a reliable target for the various backup quarterbacks in the first half of the season and really hit his stride when franchise QB, Kyler Murray, returned in Week 10.

In fact, 538 yards and two of his three touchdowns on the season came from the hands of Murray. McBride was Murray's leading receiver and target during the last half of 2023 and the growing chemistry between the two is evident.

While McBride provides an offensive punch at tight end that the Cardinals have not had in many years, the selection of Reiman in the third round of this year's NFL Draft points toward an emerging offensive identity that uses tight ends in a variety of ways.

A 6-foot-5, 271 pound former Fighting Illini, Reiman is the embodiment of an old school tight end that might rarely land the acrobatic one-handed catch but whose presence as an additional blocker on the line, and out, can provide the pathway for a potent running game.

Last season, James Conner had a great deal of success on the ground coming away with the first 1,000 yard campaign of his career. However, it is not just Conner that contributes to the Cardinals run game. Murray is probably the most underrated running quarterback in the game at this moment and the additional draft selection of Florida State's Trey Benson lends more credence to the idea that the Cardinals are looking to be a nasty, pound and ground team in 2024.

So with two players who technically play the same position but provide completely different skillsets, what is the common denominator? Tight ends coach Ben Steele will have to oversee the progression and usage of both of these players.

The overall offensive success of the Cardinals might very well depend upon it.

Steele began his coaching career in the NFL in 2014 as offensive quality control coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers before becoming their tight ends coach in 2017. He has also spent time on the staffs of the Atlanta Falcons, Minnesota Vikings, and Denver Broncos before arriving in Arizona in 2023.

Before coaching, Steele picked up plenty of real-world tight end experience as a player. After attending Colorado Mesa University, he spent six years in the NFL from 2001-2007. (Fun fact: Steele caught Aaron Rodgers' first professional touchdown in a 2005 preseason game.)

Steele has been the only position coach that second-year TE McBride has worked with in the NFL and he had this to say about the expectations set by his coach:

“You are asked to do a lot, you’re asked to know a lot. You’re asked to block, you’re asked to run routes, asked to pass protect. It’s a tough position, but I think the offense we run here values the tight end.”

While it is clear that McBride excels as a pass-catching tight end and the majority of his role on the team will most likely remain in that realm, the addition of Reiman indicates the Cardinals' desire to have a mauling tight end on the field concurrent with McBride to open up running and passing opportunities.

It does seem that, compared to previous coaching regimes, head coach Jonathan Gannon and offensive coordinator Drew Petzing do value the tight end for the variety of things the position can bring to the table.

In 2023, the Cardinals ran out of 12 personnel (1 running back, 2 tight ends) on almost 20% of offensive snaps. Even more tellingly, more than 10% of snaps were out of the more rare 13 personnel (1 running back, 3 tight ends), the most of any team in the league.

A lot of pressure will come down on Steele to prepare his talented young tight end duo to be prepared for the Cardinals' offense to run through them. McBride seems slated to see another heavy target share and Reiman is expected to be a key cog in a run game that doesn't want to take any steps backward.