The Arizona Cardinals appear to be pretty good with their quarterback situation. Journeyman Jacoby Brissett finally found a permanent home and should become the starter this upcoming season. Veteran Gardner Minshew was signed in free agency to provide quality backup in case something were to happen to Brissett, who has proven to be very durable in his 10-year NFL career.
Kedon Slovis was headed to secure the QB3 spot when the Cardinals selected QB Carson Beck in the third round of this year’s NFL
draft.
RELATED: CARDINALS DRAFT QB CARSON BECK
Most NFL clubs keep three signalcallers. Back in the day, two was all any NFL team would keep until the league kept expanding rosters. When the league max roster was just 33 players, there was no way a third QB could be retained to sit all season.
But now, most rosters have three on their main roster and at least one on the practice squad.
Competition is good. All positions need it, and it brings out the best in athletes who realize they can’t be complacent, thinking their job is secure no matter what.
Is the Arizona coaching staff satisfied with what they have in the QB room? Don’t they need to do their due diligence?
The NFL supplemental draft will be conducted during July, and Texas Tech QB Brendan Sorsby will most likely be available. Should the Cardinals pursue him?
Even though Brissett is penciled in as the starter in 2026, there is uncertainty surrounding him. Don’t get it wrong that the new coaching staff doesn’t have full confidence in him leading the new offense. In fact, his skills are perfect in Mike LaFleur’s offensive scheme. Last year, Brissett showed his worth when he set a new NFL record by tossing 47 passes in the 41-22 loss to the San Francisco 49ers in mid-November. The old record was 45 attempts.
But at the beginning of April, Brissett announced he wasn’t going to play for his current contract, which is the second year of a two-year deal worth $12.5 million. He agreed to that contract before the 2025 season when he was brought in to become QB Kyler Murray’s backup. When Murray became injured, and Brissett stepped in, despite the team not notching wins, Brissett played extremely well and threw for 3,366 yards with 23 touchdowns against just eight interceptions and a 64.9% completion percentage. That was for just 12 starts in the 17-game season.
LaFleur acknowledged that he was looking forward to working with Brissett and had full intentions of keeping him behind center going forward. But now, Brissett is asking for a new deal while slated for a $4.88 million base salary and $9.19 million cap hit in 2026. Very good backup QB money, but certainly chump change for a starting NFL quarterback.
So, there’s that. Brissett is not attending voluntary Phase 1 workouts, and most likely, nobody in the desert will be seeing him at all until this comes to an end. Either GM Monti Ossenfort will give him a raise as the starting QB, or he will instruct Brissett’s agent that the player will either play for what he agreed upon or sit out and not get paid at all.
This would mean Minshew will have to step in and step up.
He could be considered a journeyman as well, playing seven years in the league with his sixth club. But he has played in 63 NFL games with 47 starts and was very successful when he was the starting QB while with the Jacksonville Jaguars. He earned a Pro Bowl when he started 13 games with the Indianapolis Colts in 2023, his only season in Indiana. He tossed career numbers that year with 3,305 yards with 15 TDs against nine picks, and a 62.2% completion ratio.
Minshew was signed with the idea that he could become the starter as well, either by beating out Brissett in training camp or by being readily available in case of injury.
Then there is Slovis and Beck.
Slovis has only appeared in two NFL games, with just a pair of throws. Despite being named First Team All-Pac 12 in his senior year at USC, he went undrafted in the 2024 NFL draft, was signed by the Colts, where he was a last-day cut, then picked up by the Houston Texans and signed to their practice squad. He went through their training camp the following year and again was a last-day cut. The Cardinals grabbed him and signed him to their practice squad, then he was promoted to the main roster when Murray became injured and became the backup.
Beck was taken in the third round and is expected to become Arizona’s quarterback of the future. The beauty for him is that he doesn’t have to be shoved into the lineup all season and can sit and learn from the veterans. Then in next year’s training camp, he can be assessed as if he is ready to take the starting role. So, the jury is out on him until the summer of 2027.
Brendan Sorsby (6’-3”, 235 pounds) could become a valuable prospect that Ossenfort and the coaching staff may want to consider. But there are issues. In fact, ongoing problems.
He played two years at Indiana and two at Cincinnati, and then entered the transfer portal, where he was viewed as the top quarterback in the portal. He has proven to be one of the nation’s most effective dual-threat QBs for 2025.
College programs lined up in droves in order to have him come to their school. In January, he announced that he would transfer to Texas Tech. He was projected as one of the top quarterbacks in the country next season and has an NIL evaluation of $5 million.
However, he took an indefinite leave of absence from Texas Tech. Sorsby is under an NCAA investigation regarding whether he bet on his Indiana squad repeatedly while redshirting as a true freshman in 2022. None of the games he placed a bet on came in a game that Sorsby played.
It has since come to light that Sorsby has made thousands of online bets on several online sports sites using a gambling app. This could make his college eligibility with Texas Tech an issue and may jeopardize his final year.
Sorsby has since enrolled in a residential treatment program for a gambling addiction.
He has already played four college seasons. He has played in 35 games. Sorsby has tossed 968 passes and completed 594 for 7,208 yards with 60 touchdowns and only 18 interceptions. He has a career 61.4% completion ratio. He is a very good runner with 320 rushes for 1,295 yards, a 4.0 average yards per attempt, with an additional 22 touchdowns. Did you get that? A very willing running quarterback.
With an active investigation, Sorsby just may decide to forego that final fifth year and throw his name into the NFL hat. This would place him in the supplemental draft, held in early July.
This type of draft is a bit different than the April college draft. Interested teams put in “bids” on players who are available. The highest bid based on “draft rounds” then gets each player available. If two teams bid on the same player identified in the same round, then the lowest-ranked club slotted in April’s NFL draft receives the player. Then, in next year’s April draft, that NFL team forfeits that round.
The NFL supplemental draft is not held every year, but is available for players who have used up their eligibility but graduated later, or are facing disciplinary or academic issues.
While Sorsby is not facing any criminal charges, if he enters the league, it is possible that the commissioner may impose some sort of suspension before he begins his career. The NFL does not play when it comes to players who gamble on their own teams. They don’t want problems that don’t exist, and if it means punishing an athlete who becomes the poster child for unwanted issues, then the league is swift with their findings and punishment so that the cancer doesn’t spread.
With the Cardinals owning the #3 draft spot, they would have only two other teams that could outbid them in each “round.” For example, Arizona could put in a third-round “bid” for Sorsby, and if nobody puts in a second or a first-round bid, the Cardinals would be third in line in Round 3 for his services and have only the Las Vegas Raiders and the New York Jets to contend with.
The Raiders signed veteran Kirk Cousins in free agency and then drafted Fernando Mendoza first overall in the draft, so there shouldn’t be any interest with this franchise. The Jets drafted Clemson QB Cade Klubnik in Round 4 and signed veteran Geno Smith this offseason, which means they should be good.
Unless the Cardinals plan on signing Brissett to a long-term deal going into the 2026 season, next year it will be only Beck, as both Brissett’s and Minshew’s contracts expire. Keep in mind, the new coaching staff hand-picked Beck and apparently considers him the QB of the future.
As far as Sorsby goes, can the franchise ignore a talented young guy when they currently hold such a low slot?
Which begs the question: Would Sorsby be a problem, or the solution?
