As the Arizona Cardinals began voluntary organized team activities, one player remained conspicuously absent.
That would be their presumptive starting quarterback, Jacoby Brissett. Atop a depth chart that also includes Gardner Minshew and rookie Carson Beck, Brissett is reportedly seeking a pay raise that would see him earn starting quarterback-caliber money this season.
Those are the basic facts of the situation. They also belie just how unusual this is.
Typically, holdouts come when a star player is seeking an extension. In that scenario, both sides have a reason to pursue a solution. Teams don’t want their best players hitting free agency, given how difficult it is to find true impact players outside of the draft. And in the short term, they don’t want to start the season without their best players.
For the player, meanwhile, a holdout means incurring financial damage in the form of fines and lost salary. There’s a reason these situations are typically settled during training camp, rather than pushing into the regular season.
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Seeking a simple pay raise — with no extension — is far less common. But when that does happen, it typically looks like the situation between the Cincinnati Bengals and Trey Hendrickson last summer. The Bengals saw themselves as a contender, and Hendrickson was one of their more important players. They were incentivized to find a solution, even if Hendrickson was still set to depart in free agency (as he ultimately did). Shortly before the start of the season, he landed his one-season pay raise and ended the holdout.
With Brissett and the Cardinals, those incentives don’t exist.
Hard to rally around 2025 stats
In Brissett's 12 starts last season, the Cardinals went 1-11. His career results aren’t much better, at 20-45. He’s started a game in seven different seasons and never produced a winning record.
And while some of his individual top-line numbers were gaudy last season — bolstered by immense passing volume — the efficiency was not. From the time he took over for Kyler Murray, Brissett ranked 21st of 26 quarterbacks (minimum 200 pass attempts) in expected points added per dropback, per For The Numbers.
Arizona Cardinals quarterback Jacoby Brissett (7) carries the ball against the Los Angeles Rams during the first half at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif., on Jan. 4, 2025.
Plus, the Cardinals are not a contender. Per DraftKings, they have the NFL’s worst playoff odds, at 20-1. Any realistic accounting of their current situation would begin with 2027 as the first season in which they could make a push for a playoff spot — if not 2028.
And if that’s the case, the Cardinals’ alternate options are just as appealing as Brissett. Over the past three seasons, Minshew has actually been slightly more efficient, producing -0.02 expected points added per dropback, to Brissett’s -0.05. Both players, realistically, have performed as somewhere between a low-end starter and a high-end backup.
Then there’s the element of Beck’s presence on the roster.
Most analysts believed the Cardinals’ selection of Beck at No. 65 overall constituted a draft-day reach, given his limited athleticism and arm strength. He was widely projected as a Day 3 pick, not a mid-Day 2 selection.
Still, he at least arrives in Arizona with the unknown quality of a rookie. With a 17-game runway, Beck would likely lead the Cardinals down one of two pathways. Either he would show enough to be the quarterback of the future, or the Cardinals would careen toward a top-three draft pick, as the oddsmakers expect.
It’s difficult, then, to see where Brissett fits in, unless the Cardinals are looking at their gauntlet of NFC West rivals and fancying themselves a contender.
Plus, his current cap hit of $9.2 million ranks 25th among all quarterbacks — not far out of line with his production. Excluding those on rookie deals, Brissett’s salary lands him below Daniel Jones and Aaron Rodgers, but above Malik Willis and Geno Smith.
Cardinals' viewpoint on Brissett holdout
For the Cardinals’ sake, meanwhile, let’s imagine that Brissett lands a $10 million raise. With $19.7 million in effective cap space — per Over The Cap — Arizona can afford that.
But cap space rolls over, and the Cardinals have expensive extensions coming down the pike for Paris Johnson Jr. and Michael Wilson. Their $120.2 million in projected space for 2027 could dwindle toward $70 million, depending on the magnitude of those deals.
The Cardinals are also likely to be in search of help at right tackle and along the defensive line next offseason. All of that costs money, as general manager Monti Ossenfort alluded to last month, in explaining the franchise’s lack of free agent spending.
“With where we're at, we have flexibility,” Ossenfort said. “We have optionality with re-signing our own players, with going out to get other players, with re-signing a draft class, with accounting for injuries. I think that where you're at on the cap space and where you look right now on the ledger as we sit here in the middle of April can be a little bit misleading.”
If the Cardinals hand a $10 million raise to Brissett, that flexibility would become diminished — and to what end? The Cardinals are not a contender, nor is Brissett a difference-maker.
Right now, the only impact of Brissett’s holdout is that he’s missing out on key practices as first-year Cardinals coach Mike LaFleur installs a new offense. It’s difficult to see who benefits.
