The Arizona Cardinals ended a four-month standoff on Sunday, agreeing with Jacoby Brissett on a reworked one-year contract worth $15.5 million that can reach $21 million through incentives.
Brissett had been scheduled to make $4.88 million in base salary with just $1.5 million guaranteed. He negotiated the raise himself, without an agent, after the Cardinals told him following free agency that he was their starter. What the deal does not do is commit Arizona to him beyond this season, and the numbers explain why.
Jacoby Brissett’s QB Impact Score Tells 2 Different Stories
The counting stats made his case loudly. Brissett threw for a career-high 3,366 yards with 23 touchdowns and 8 interceptions in 12 starts after a foot injury ended Kyler Murray’s final season in Arizona. The yardage ranked 14th leaguewide and the touchdowns tied for 14th.
The efficiency numbers argue much quieter. Brissett finished at 72.8 in PFN’s QB Impact Score, 25th among quarterbacks last season and 594th among all graded seasons in the metric’s history. His minus-0.01 EPA per dropback ranked 29th, his 5.5 adjusted net yards per attempt ranked 25th, and his 45.8% success rate ranked 19th.
Volume drove the raw totals. Brissett’s 552 dropbacks ranked 13th, the byproduct of a 3-14 team that spent most Sundays chasing points.
However, one number stands out. Brissett’s plus-2.5 completion percentage over expected ranked 11th in a pool that grades every quarterback who took a snap, and it landed in the 72nd percentile all-time. He posted it while getting sacked 43 times and absorbing more hits than all but two quarterbacks in the league during Arizona’s nine-game closing stretch. Accuracy under duress is a real skill, and he had it.
Arizona and QB Jacoby Brissett, who skipped most of the team’s off-season program as he requested a new deal, reached agreement today on a reworked contract.
Brissett was in the second year of a two-year deal that was scheduled to pay him $4.88 million in base salary. pic.twitter.com/RYt7cauKQq
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) July 26, 2026
The closest historical match in the QB Impact database is Aaron Brooks with the 2004 New Orleans Saints, an identical 72.8 grade. That comp is fair. Competent, tough, occasionally excellent, and not the reason a roster wins games.
Why Carson Beck Makes This a 1-Year Cardinals Deal
The structure says more than the salary does. One year, with no reported commitment beyond 2026, and roughly $5.5 million of the ceiling sitting in incentives whose triggers nobody has published. Monti Ossenfort paid market rate for a bridge and declined to pour a foundation under it.
Carson Beck might be the reason. Arizona spent the first pick of the third round, No. 65 overall, on the former Miami quarterback in April. The QB Impact game log shows why the clock is already running: Brissett’s weekly grades rarely left the low-to-high 70s across his starts, and his sharpest outings (79.7 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 13, 79.1 against the Los Angeles Rams in Week 14, 76.0 against the Rams in Week 18) arrived after Arizona was buried. That is a stable floor, not a rising curve, and Brissett turns 34 in December.
The floor still fits what Mike LaFleur wants to run. He spent three seasons coordinating a Rams offense that led the NFL in points and yards last year, even if Sean McVay held the play sheet.
“I can’t lie, so I just tell him I’ve always thought he’d be a really good fit for this system,” LaFleur said at the NFL’s annual meeting in Phoenix in March. “You guys see how big he is back there, his stature, the play-action game. I think he does a good job of getting the ball out of his hands when there is some trouble with the pocket.”
The locker room got there long before the front office did. Budda Baker pushed publicly for a resolution on July 9, and Michael Wilson, who turned eight catches for 52 yards through five games into a 1,006-yard season once Brissett took over, said it plainly in June.
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“I think words can’t describe how I feel about playing with Jacoby,” Wilson said. “Obviously, what he did for my career, I’m forever indebted to him.”
Arizona opens at the Los Angeles Chargers on Sept. 13 as the betting favorite to finish with the league’s worst record. Brissett was paid to keep an offense upright while a rookie learns the job behind him. The day Beck is ready, that $21 million ceiling becomes decoration.
