First-year coach Mike LaFleur wants his Arizona Cardinals to “ignore the noise.” That’s pretty good advice for the rest of us, too.
As impressive as the Cardinals’ stunning 26-14 road win against the Los Angeles Chargers was in Week 1, it’s senseless for anyone to try to turn it into something it wasn’t. It didn’t automatically elevate our long-suffering NFL franchise into a serious playoff contender. All it did was open some eyes.
Don’t blink, because those same eyes could quickly turn red and start to burn now that the defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks are in town. Think about how fast those positive vibes will dry up and die for the Cardinals if they get throttled in their season opener at State Farm Stadium to an NFC West rival
in search of its 10th straight victory against Arizona.
That potential reality is why NFL fans should never put much stock into Week 1 outcomes. There is simply not enough information yet to formulate educated opinions about how some teams and certain induvial players will continue to perform.
Which brings us to Jacoby Brissett.
As effective and efficient as the veteran quarterback was during the Cardinals’ 12-point win after opening the game as 9½-point underdogs, it’s important not to suddenly change the narrative about who and what he is.
Yes, with 277 passing yards at SoFi Stadium, Brissett now has 3,643 in 13 games since becoming the Cardinals’ starter. That’s the most passing yards of any NFL quarterback since Week 6 of last season, more than the Lions’ Jared Goff (3,583 yards), the Cowboys’ Dak Prescott (3,371 yards) and the Rams’ Matthew Stafford (3,359 yards).
His 13 straight games with at least 200 yards and one touchdown pass also represent the longest active such streak in the league. No other QB has an active streak of more than five games. Brissett has completed 65.6% of his passes with 24 touchdowns and eight interceptions during that stretch.
He's also tied with the Steelers’ Aaron Rodgers for the lowest interception percentage (1.4) in NFL history based on 2,000 or more passing attempts (he’s been intercepted just 32 times on 2,283 career throws).
But please, let’s pump the brakes on the idea that Jacoby Brissett should now start being compared to Kurt Warner and Carson Palmer as the Cardinals’ next possible quarterback savior. That’s already been floated, at least half-heartedly, by some local sports talking heads.
At 33, Brissett is around the same age those two QB greats were when they came to Arizona. He’s even shown some of the same calm, capable leadership.
But until — or unless — he turns the NFL on its ear and somehow finds a way to help lead the Cardinals to a completely unexpected winning season this year, no one should pretend he is anything more than a gifted veteran backup who is riding out his new one-year contract and almost certainly will be replaced in the spring.
What if, though? Imagine if Brissett and the Cardinals can orchestrate an upset of the Seahawks and their fearsome defense (even if Seattle is missing injured starting quarterback Sam Darnold and is turning to backup Drew Lock) and start managing to pull off even more stunning wins along the way.
Would the Cardinals start entertaining the idea of possibly bringing Brissett back as the starter in 2027, keeping rookie QB Carson Beck on the sideline, and not spending a first-round pick on another quarterback in April? At the very least, could Brissett earn himself a starting job somewhere else?
Brissett met with reporters at the team’s Tempe training facility on Wednesday, Sept. 16, and I asked him those very questions to see how he felt about the situation.
“I haven’t even thought about stuff like that,” he said. “I’m just taking it a week at a time. Um, yeah. Stuff like that handles itself at the end of the year. It would be foolish of me after one week to put myself in the mindset of what I would be thinking in six months.”
Six months ago, however, let’s remember where Brissett was at. He was sitting at home, waiting to see if team owner Michael Bidwill and general manager Monti Ossenfort were willing to pay him like an NFL starting QB after he started the final 12 games in 2025, put up some very decent numbers despite a 1-11 finish, and the franchise decided to cut Kyler Murray.
A new deal seemed to take forever. As a result, Brissett didn’t participate in any offseason team activities, drills or workouts. The delay, and Brissett’s decision to demand a deserving raise in pay, prevented him from getting precious familiarity with LaFleur’s offense. Everything felt like a giant mistake as the days and weeks went by.
Look at them now. We can all “ignore the noise,” as we should, but Brissett and the Cardinals are the early feel-good story of professional football, and who would have thought such a thing? Probably no one outside of the Cardinals’ facility.
Maybe it’s because it feels too good to be true. And it probably is.
When asked if he feels differently about himself as a starting quarterback after Week 1’s shocker, though, don’t forget the confidence and pride emanating from Brissett’s answer:
“I think everybody started laughing when you asked that question,” he told me. “Nah. That game changed nothing in my mind about myself.”
Do yourselves a favor and sit back and see what happens.
Reach McManaman at bob.mcmanaman@arizonarepublic .Follow him on X, formerly Twitter: @azbobbymac and listen to him live every Tuesday at 3:30 p.m. on Roc and Manuch with Jimmy B on ESPN 620 (KTAR-AM) and every Thursday on the Doug Franz Unplugged podcast via Apple or Spotify.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Jacoby Brissett and the Arizona Cardinals have got people talking
