The Cardinals Are About to Make the Same Mistake They've Been Making for a Decade, and Jacoby Brissett Is the Perfect Vehicle for It

The Arizona Cardinals are one of the most predictable franchises in the NFL when it comes to quarterback decisions, and that predictability is about to cost them again. Here's what's about to happen. Jacoby Brissett will win the starting job for Week 1 of the 2026 season because the Cardinals organization lacks the conviction to make hard choices. They will convince themselves that continuity matters more than quality. They will tell themselves that veteran stability is worth the investment. And they will spend another year hoping for improvement instead of demanding it. This is the Cardinals way, and it's why they haven't won anything significant since 2015.

Let's be absolutely clear about what Jacoby Brissett is. He's a competent backup quarterback. He's a game manager. He's reliable in the way that a Toyota Corolla is reliable. It gets you where you need to go, but it's not winning any races. Brissett has thrown for 16 touchdowns and 16 interceptions in his career starts. That's not a typo. His touchdown to interception ratio is exactly one to one. That's not the resume of a franchise quarterback. That's the resume of a guy who can hold down the fort while you find something better. The Cardinals seem to think they can actually build something with this guy. They cannot. This is a delusion.

The real problem with the Cardinals' quarterback situation has nothing to do with Brissett and everything to do with organizational incompetence. This franchise has been searching for a quarterback for a decade. They drafted Josh Rosen in the first round and gave up on him after one year. They brought in Kyler Murray and, while Murray has flashes of brilliance, he's never been the cornerstone player they hoped he would be. Now they're backing up and settling for Brissett like he's some kind of prize catch. He's not. He's what you get when you've failed at every level of roster construction and front office planning.

The Cardinals had a chance to build something in 2023 and 2024. They had Kyler Murray. They had DeAndre Hopkins briefly. They had defensive talent on the roster. But they squandered every opportunity because they can't make decisive moves. They can't commit to a vision. They can't execute a plan. Instead, they draft receivers in the first round when they have bigger problems. They make lateral moves at linebacker like it matters. They tinker around the edges while the foundation crumbles. Now they're about to hand the keys to Jacoby Brissett and hope for the best. This is organizational malpractice.

What really gets me about this whole situation is that the Cardinals have the leverage to make a real move, and they're choosing not to use it. If Brissett wants top-tier money, the Cardinals should call his bluff. There are maybe fifteen or sixteen legitimate starting quarterbacks in this league worth paying top dollar. Jacoby Brissett is not one of them. The market for backup quarterbacks is absolutely brutal right now because most teams understand what the Cardinals refuse to accept. You cannot build a Super Bowl team around a middling veteran quarterback. You just cannot do it. It's never happened. It won't happen with Brissett either.

Here's what the Cardinals should be doing instead. They should be looking at the 2026 draft class and preparing to make a legitimate commitment to a young quarterback. They should be clearing cap space. They should be building an offensive line. They should be acquiring weapons. They should be doing everything possible to position themselves to either draft a franchise guy or trade for one. But that requires long-term vision and short-term pain. The Cardinals don't have the stomach for either. So they'll sign Brissett to whatever deal he wants, they'll convince the fanbase that he's a viable solution, and they'll spend 2026 wondering how they won only five or six games again.

The most infuriating part about all of this is that we've seen this movie before. The Cardinals did almost the same thing with Kyler Murray. They didn't fully commit to building around him. They didn't surround him with the right personnel. They didn't fire coordinators when things weren't working. They just kind of hoped everything would work out and acted shocked when it didn't. Now they're doing it again with a quarterback who isn't even half as talented as Kyler Murray. The franchise learned nothing. Zero lessons. They're just going to keep cycling through mediocre veterans and wondering why they're not competitive.

Look at what other franchises are doing. The Texans took a quarterback in the draft and immediately built around him with weapons and a legitimate offensive line. The Colts are doing the same thing. The Jaguars made their move and won eleven games. The Bengals never stopped believing in Joe Burrow even when the team was bad. Meanwhile, the Cardinals are about to hand off to Jacoby Brissett like he's the next evolution of quarterback play. He's not. He's the equivalent of treading water while you slowly sink.

The contract situation with Brissett is the real tell here. If Brissett is demanding top money, the Cardinals should walk away immediately. Period. Full stop. No negotiations. If he wants starter money, you don't give it to him. You tell him he can be the backup for $5 million or he can go somewhere else. That's what an organization with real conviction does. But the Cardinals are going to cave. They always do. They're going to convince themselves that the bird in hand is worth two in the bush, and they're going to sign Brissett to a deal that pays him like he's a top-ten quarterback. Then they'll spend the season frustrated when he plays exactly like the backup quarterback he is.

This is what franchise incompetence looks like. It's not one catastrophic decision. It's a thousand small decisions made by an organization that doesn't understand what it takes to build a winner. It's the choice to settle when you should be pushing. It's the choice to maintain the status quo when you should be tearing it down. It's the choice to sign Jacoby Brissett to start for your football team when you should be preparing to find the next franchise quarterback.

The Cardinals will win maybe six or seven games next season. They'll blame injuries. They'll blame bad luck. They'll blame everyone except the people making decisions. And then next offseason, they'll do something slightly different but fundamentally the same, and we'll all be back here wondering how a franchise with this much talent keeps finding ways to be this bad. The answer is simple. The Cardinals organization doesn't know how to build a championship roster. They never have. They never will. Not like this.

VERDICT: The Cardinals handing the starting job to Jacoby Brissett is the wrong move for all the right reasons. They're going to do it anyway because they lack the spine to commit to real change. This franchise will be mediocre again in 2026, and nobody should be surprised.