Cardinals Made a Catastrophic Mistake and Now They're Paying the Price for Their Own Incompetence

Let me be crystal clear about what is happening in Arizona right now, because the mainstream football media is going to soft pedal this and pretend it is some sort of negotiation dance. It is not. The Arizona Cardinals have created one of the most self-inflicted disasters in recent NFL offseason history, and the fact that Jacoby Brissett is not even participating in voluntary workouts tells you everything you need to know about how badly the organization has bungled this situation from top to bottom.

Here is the fundamental problem that nobody wants to say out loud: The Cardinals never should have put themselves in this position in the first place. When you bring in a quarterback in the offseason to compete for the starting job or to potentially be your primary starter, you have to come to an agreement on the contract BEFORE that player shows up. You do not wait until he is already on the roster, already embedded in the locker room, and already working with your coaching staff to figure out the financial details. That is amateur hour stuff, and frankly, it is exactly what a poorly run organization does when it does not have a clear vision of what it wants to accomplish.

The Cardinals signed Brissett to what everyone understood to be a one year deal worth around five million dollars. That was the framework when he was brought in. He was supposed to be a bridge option, a veteran presence who could step in if Kyler Murray went down or if the team decided that Murray was not the long term solution. It was a low risk, low cost arrangement. But something changed. Either Brissett played well enough in spring workouts that the Cardinals realized they might actually want to keep him around long term, or Murray's injury situation became more uncertain, or the organization decided to pivot away from the young quarterback. Whatever the reason, the Cardinals apparently approached Brissett about a reworked deal that would pay him significantly more money.

Here is where the Cardinals organization failed completely. If you are going to come back to a player and ask him to accept different terms than what he originally signed, you better come with an offer that actually makes sense. You better come with an offer that the player feels respects the opportunity cost of his free agency. When Brissett signed that original deal, he did it with the understanding that he would have a certain financial package. If you want to change that deal, you are implicitly saying to him that you value him more than you originally thought. That means the new deal needs to reflect that increased value. The Cardinals apparently did not do that, because now Brissett is not showing up to voluntary workouts, which is a clear and unmistakable message that the two sides are nowhere close to agreeing.

Let me explain why the Cardinals are completely wrong in this negotiation. They are operating from a position of weakness but acting like they have all the leverage. Brissett is not some young quarterback trying to build his resume. He has been around the league for years. He knows his value. He knows what he can command on the open market. He also knows that if the Cardinals wanted him badly enough, they would have made a serious offer. The fact that they did not means they are trying to nickel and dime him, and Brissett is rightfully calling them out by skipping the voluntary program.

The Cardinals are probably thinking that Brissett will eventually cave, that he will come in and participate because he does not want to be seen as a problem or a distraction. They are probably thinking that once training camp rolls around, he will not want to risk his health or his playing time by not being there. They are counting on Brissett's eventual capitulation. But here is what they are missing: Brissett does not care. He does not need the Arizona Cardinals. There are other teams that would absolutely bring him in if he hit the free agent market again. He has proven he can play at an NFL level. He knows that. The Cardinals know that. So by holding firm on whatever lowball offer they put on the table, the Cardinals are essentially saying that they would rather have a disgruntled quarterback in the locker room than pay market rate for a player they clearly want to keep.

This is the kind of organizational failure that happens when you do not have continuity in your front office and coaching staff. The Cardinals have been a disaster for years now. They have had multiple coaching changes, multiple front office restructurings, and they have consistently made poor decisions with their roster construction and player personnel moves. This situation with Brissett is just the latest example of a team that does not know how to handle basic business negotiations with its own players.

The voluntary offseason program being skipped is not some minor detail. That is a big deal. Coaches use the voluntary program to install offense, to build chemistry, to get continuity on the field. When a quarterback skips it, especially a quarterback who is supposed to be important to your team's plans, that is a statement. That is Brissett saying loud and clear that he is not interested in being part of this organization unless they get serious about compensating him fairly. And the Cardinals cannot do anything about it right now because this is the voluntary program. Once training camp comes around, it becomes mandatory, and then we will see how serious both sides are about reaching a deal.

My prediction is that the Cardinals will eventually cave, because they have to. They cannot go into the regular season with a starting quarterback who is genuinely angry at the organization. That is a recipe for disaster. They will increase their offer, Brissett will come in and participate, and everyone will pretend that this was just a normal negotiation. But it is not normal. It is a failure of the Cardinals organization to properly manage their quarterback situation from the start.

The real question is whether the Cardinals have learned anything from this mess, and based on their track record, I seriously doubt they have. They will probably be right back in a similar situation next year with a different player, because they fundamentally do not understand how to run a professional sports organization.

VERDICT: The Cardinals are wrong, Brissett is right to hold out, and this organization deserves whatever chaos comes from this situation. Grade the Cardinals organization an F for handling this negotiation. They created this problem, and now they have to live with it.