The Cardinals Are Making a Massive Mistake If They Hand Jacoby Brissett the Starting Job Without a Real Competition

Let me be clear about something right from the start. The Arizona Cardinals organization is about to make one of the dumbest decisions of the 2026 offseason if they crown Jacoby Brissett as their Week 1 starter based on some perceived path of least resistance. This is not a referendum on Brissett as a backup or a spot starter. This is about the Cardinals completely misunderstanding what they need to do as a franchise right now. They need to stop taking shortcuts. They need to stop settling for mediocrity. They need to build a real competition and let it play out the right way.

Here is what is actually happening with the Cardinals. They have a quarterback situation that is genuinely unsettled. Brissett is a journeyman who has bounced around the league for years without ever proving he can sustain success as a starting quarterback for more than a few games. He has thrown more interceptions than touchdowns in his career. His completion percentage is below league average. His decision making has been suspect in critical moments. Yet somehow, we are supposed to accept that he should just walk into Arizona and assume the starting role because he has been on the roster and the odds are in his favor. This is exactly the kind of thinking that keeps franchises stuck in the middle.

The Cardinals have legitimate questions to answer going into 2026. Can Brissett actually run an offense for an entire season without the wheels falling off? Does he have the arm talent and the accuracy to keep drives alive? Can he make the throws that a modern NFL offense demands? Can he handle the pressure when the games matter most in December and January? These are not minor questions. These are the fundamental questions that determine whether you have a starting quarterback or whether you have a placeholder. The only way to answer these questions is through real competition during training camp and the preseason. You do not answer them by anointing someone as the starter before the pads even come on.

What bothers me most about this situation is the lack of urgency from the Cardinals organization. They are acting like they have time to figure things out. They are acting like it is no big deal if Brissett underperforms in the regular season because they can always pivot later. That is not how franchises win. That is how franchises waste another year while the rest of the league passes them by. The Cardinals should be acting like they have a short window to get this right. They should be acting like their 2026 season is crucial. Instead, they are taking the path of least resistance by defaulting to Brissett.

Let me explain why Brissett is not the answer for Arizona. Over his career, Brissett has started 23 games in the NFL. His record is 6 and 17. That is not a typo. That is not a misleading statistic. That is a genuine indictment of what happens when Brissett is asked to be the primary decision maker for an entire offense. Sure, some of those losses came on bad teams. Sure, some of those losses came in situations where he was thrust into the game with no preparation. But at some point, you have to look at the pattern and recognize it for what it is. Brissett is a competent backup. He is a smart quarterback who knows how to get through a game without killing you if he has a good supporting cast. But he is not a winner. He is not someone who elevates a team. He is not someone who gives you a legitimate chance to win a division or make a playoff run.

The Cardinals are also setting themselves up for a disaster with contract negotiations. If they tell Brissett that he is the starting quarterback, his agent is going to come in and demand money that reflects that role. The Cardinals will be forced into a choice. Either they pay Brissett more money than he deserves, or they create a contentious situation where their starting quarterback feels undervalued and disrespected. This is a negotiation trap that the Cardinals should have seen coming from a mile away. They should have kept this competition completely open so that they have maximum flexibility when it comes time to talk money. Instead, they are backed into a corner before the team has even stepped on the field.

What the Cardinals should actually be doing is bringing in legitimate competition. They should identify a young quarterback in free agency or through trade who can push Brissett in every single practice. They should create an environment where the starting job is legitimately up for grabs. They should make it clear to everyone that the best quarterback is going to play, and that determination is going to be made through competitive reps and evaluation. This approach has worked for organizations throughout NFL history. It creates urgency. It creates accountability. It forces your quarterbacks to perform at a high level every single day. It sends a message to your offense that mediocrity is not acceptable.

The Cardinals need to look at what other franchises have done in similar situations. When teams have real competitions, they tend to get better results. They tend to make better decisions about their quarterback situation. They tend to avoid the trap of falling in love with a safe choice instead of fighting for the right choice. The Cardinals have been stuck in neutral for too long. They have made too many decisions based on convenience instead of conviction. This quarterback situation is another opportunity for them to make the wrong call, and I am genuinely concerned that they are about to do exactly that.

Here is what really gets me fired up about this whole thing. The Cardinals are being presented with a chance to reset their quarterback situation, and they are responding by essentially punting. They are saying that if Brissett does not cause problems with contract negotiations, he is good enough to be the starter. That is not a standard. That is not a plan. That is a concession to inertia and organizational laziness. The NFL is full of organizations that fail because they are willing to accept good enough when they should be demanding great. The Cardinals are about to join that list if they are not careful.

The odds that are being quoted about Brissett being the Week 1 starter tell you everything you need to know. The fact that these odds even exist is an admission that the situation is genuinely unsettled. If the Cardinals had conviction about this, there would be no competition. Brissett would have been named the starter months ago, and everyone would have moved on. The fact that we are still talking about odds and possibilities means the Cardinals have not made a real decision. They have just deferred to the default option. That is a weakness, not a strength.

I am going to make this prediction right now. If the Cardinals go into 2026 with Brissett as their starter without a genuine, hard-fought competition during the offseason, they will regret it. They will spend the season looking for reasons why their quarterback play is not good enough. They will blame the receivers. They will blame the protection schemes. They will blame the play calling. But the real problem will be that they never demanded excellence from their quarterback position. They never created an environment where their quarterback had to earn the role through performance. They just handed it to him and hoped for the best.

The Arizona Cardinals need to stop taking the easy way out. They need to stop settling for Jacoby Brissett because it seems convenient. They need to recognize that winning in the NFL requires tough decisions and uncomfortable conversations. They need to build a real quarterback competition and let it play out the way it should. The alternative is another wasted season with mediocre quarterback play and another year of falling further behind in their division. The time to fix this is now, before the season even starts. The question is whether the Cardinals have the guts to do it.

VERDICT: The Cardinals are making a colossal mistake if they let Jacoby Brissett walk into the starting job without a legitimate battle. This is organizational complacency masquerading as reasonable planning. They need to demand better and create a real competition or accept the consequences of their own mediocrity.