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The Cardinals are not close to a deal with Jacoby Brissett on the eve of their training camp, per NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, potentially setting up an extended standoff with fewer than two months until the regular season.
Brissett, 33, signed in Arizona on a two-year, $12.5MM deal last offseason to back up Kyler Murray. Murray’s season-ending foot injury put Brissett on the field for most of the season. Across his 12 starts, the Cardinals won just one game, but he averaged 280.5 passing yards, which would have led all quarterbacks last year.
The Cardinals released Murray this offseason and declined to add a clear starter via free agency or the draft, positioning Brissett to retain his job heading into the 2026 season. That gave the 10-year veteran significant leverage to demand a raise over the $5.39MM he is due this year (via OverTheCap), the lowest pay for any presumptive starter who is not on a rookie contract.
Brissett skipped Arizona’s voluntary offseason program (including OTAs) but did report to mandatory minicamp. He remained a limited participant in individual drills only with Gardner Minshew, who signed for $5.75MM this offseason, staying under center in full-team work.
The Cardinals have acknowledged that Brissett deserves a raise, Rapoport notes, but the two sides are clearly far apart on that number. The team likely prefers a more modest pay bump in the region of $7MM, the same AAV as Marcus Mariota and Davis Mills received from the Commanders and the Texans, respectively, to be their backup. Brissett may be eyeing a figure closer to the $11MM deals signed by Justin Fields and Kirk Cousins to serve as potential stopgap starters in 2026.
Brissett will be subject to fines if he does not report to training camp on Wednesday. The team can dock him $60k per day with another $287k fine for any missed preseason games, per Cards Wire’s Howard Balzer.
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