It’s been four years since Trey McBride has been playing in one of the toughest divisions in the NFL: the NFC West, as the Arizona Cardinals face the Los Angeles Rams, the San Francisco 49ers, and the Seattle Seahawks twice in the season. But if you ask the fifth-year tight end about the toughest opponent in the NFC West, McBride will surely name the reigning Super Bowl champions.

“To be honest, it’s Seattle,” McBride said on the Bussin’ With The Boys Podcast when asked. “That’s a tough place to play. Their defense is a bunch of sh-t-talkers. They have a really good team, too. I feel like every time we go to Seattle, it’s such a hostile environment. Lumen field is such a cool place to play, and they’ve gotten the best of us the last couple of times. So, it’d be nice to get back on the winning side for sure.”

The Seahawks went 2-0 against the Cardinals in the 2025 season. But it was the Week 10 game that turned out to be a one-sided affair. The Seahawks’ suffocating defense held the Cardinals to just 22 points and sacked quarterback Jacoby Brissett 5 times, who went 22-of-44 for 258 yards and two touchdowns. Arizona could convert just six out of 16 third-downs, as the Seahawks won 44-22.

And that was the overall story of Mike Macdonald’s defense last season. The unit led the NFL in scoring defense, allowing just 17.2 points per game, while also finishing in the top 10 in both total yards and passing yards allowed, along with ranking among the league’s top three in rushing yards allowed.

Meanwhile, when Trey McBride was asked whether the Seahawks’ defense locked him up, the 26-year-old tight end pushed back against it.

“I don’t know about locked me up, I went for like 130, but we lost,” he said.

For context, McBride caught 9 receptions for 127 yards and scored one touchdown at Lumen Field last year. At the same time, however, it’s worth noting that the Cardinals are 0-8 against the Seahawks in the last four seasons, ever since they drafted McBride in the second round of the 2022 NFL draft. Even so, McBride has recorded 41 catches for 445 yards and two touchdowns in those 8 games against his division rivals.

And last but not least, it’s not easy for the opponents to travel to Seattle and beat the Seahawks at Lumen Field. The stadium doesn’t intimidate opponents like the Cardinals because of mythology. In fact, it does because of its architecture, acoustics, and one of the loudest fan bases in professional sports, as Lumen Field is literally designed to trap and amplify noise.

So, when Trey McBride said that playing at Lumen Field can become a hostile environment, it’s fair to say that numbers, history, and Seattle’s defense back that up.