The Arizona Cardinals reported to training camp Wednesday without a reworked contract for Jacoby Brissett. NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported Tuesday night that no deal is imminent between the team and its presumptive starting quarterback, setting up the possibility of a standoff that stretches deep into camp.
Brissett signed a two-year, $12.5 million deal last offseason to back up Kyler Murray, then made 12 starts after Murray’s season-ending foot injury. Arizona won just one of those games, but Brissett averaged 280.5 passing yards per start, a figure that would have led the league over a full season. He is due a maximum of $5.39 million in the final year of his deal, with only $1.5 million guaranteed — per Pro Football Rumors, the lowest pay for any presumptive starter in the league who is not on a rookie contract.
The dispute is not over whether Brissett deserves a raise — Rapoport reports both sides agree he does — but over the number. Pro Football Rumors notes the team likely prefers a bump into the $7 million range that Marcus Mariota and Davis Mills earn as backups in Washington and Houston, while Brissett, who represents himself, may be targeting the $11 million deals Justin Fields and Kirk Cousins signed this offseason as potential stopgap starters.
The leverage math now shifts. Brissett skipped the voluntary offseason program and, at mandatory minicamp, limited himself to individual drills while Gardner Minshew — who signed for $5.75 million this offseason — took the full-team reps. Skipping camp outright gets expensive: Cards Wire’s Howard Balzer reports Arizona can fine him $60,000 per day for missing camp, plus $287,000 for any missed preseason game. A hold-in, reporting but limiting his participation, remains the likelier path.
Every day the standoff continues also shapes the rest of the quarterback room, where Minshew and rookie Carson Beck stand to absorb whatever first-team work Brissett leaves on the table. Arizona’s first practice comes Friday, when the Cardinals open the earliest camp in the league ahead of their Hall of Fame Game appearance. That is the next checkpoint: whether Brissett is on the field, or standing next to it.
