Last year, quarterback Jacoby Brissett signed a two-year, $12.5 million deal to serve as the backup to Kyler Murray. Brissett ended up starting 12 games.
This year, after a couple of months of uncertainty as to the projected top spot on the Arizona depth chart, it eventually became clear that Brissett will be the starter.
And that’s the root of Brissett’s effort to get a contract adjustment.
On Tuesday’s PFT Live, Devin McCourty (who played with Brissett in New England and still communicates with him) confirmed that, from Brissett’s perspective, it’s that simple. He arrived as a backup. He accepted a contract to be a backup. Now that the Cardinals have eased him — almost by default — into the starting role, he would like his deal to be adjusted.
It’s a fair point. And that doesn’t mean he wants to be paid at the high end of the scale. As veteran starters go, $20 million is the baseline.
And that’s a far cry from his current average of $6.25 million per year.
The question is whether the Cardinals will do anything about Brissett’s deal. They don’t have to. And holdouts have become very expensive for players, thanks to the daily fines for skipping training camp.
A hold-in is possible. But no one would benefit from that, especially since there’s a new coaching staff and a new offense in Arizona.
That could open the door for Gardner Minshew or Carson Beck to take the job. Which presumably would be fine with Brissett. He signed to be the backup. If he’s going to be the backup, his contract is fine. If he’s going to be the starter, he deserves a new deal.
Cardinals edge rusher Josh Sweat is attending the team’s mandatory minicamp, but he is not participating.
Coach Mike LaFleur downplayed Sweat’s on-field absence and said he is not worried about Sweat “at all.”
“The situation is, again, he hasn’t practiced,” LaFleur said, via Josh Weinfuss of ESPN. “I’m not going to put a guy out on the field that hasn’t been out there to prep. That’s what Phase One and Phase Two [of the offseason program] are for, to get guys ready for Phase Three. Josh has always done this. Josh has always had his own program, and he’s not the first guy on any team I’ve been a part of that’s been a part of that. In San Francisco, L.A., we’ve always had guys that were kind of like that, and that’s OK. The one thing that you know about Josh is when he’s not in this building, he’s working and I think that shows when he gets out there on the field.”
Sweat missed all of the voluntary offseason program, choosing to work out on his own.
Sweat led the team with a career-high 12 sacks last season. He had signed a four-year, $76.4 million deal with the Cardinals to reunite with coach Jonathan Gannon, who was Sweat’s defensive coordinator in Philadelphia for two seasons.
The Cardinals have reportedly received trade calls regarding Sweat, but a recent report indicated the Cardinals do not intend to trade him.
Quarterback Jacoby Brissett and edge rusher Josh Sweat are at the Cardinals’ mandatory minicamp, avoiding the $107,911 fine it would have cost them for missing all three days.
However, Darren Urban of the team website reports that neither player is participating in Tuesday’s session.
Brissett wants a pay raise for this season, while the Cardinals are getting trade calls for Sweat.
Both players skipped the voluntary portion of the team’s offseason program.
Brissett, 33, is entering the second year of a two-year deal he signed in March 2025. He is scheduled to make $4.88 million in 2026, with a max value of $5.39 million, but only $1.5 million is guaranteed.
Sweat led the team with a career-high 12 sacks last season. He had signed a four-year, $76.4 million deal with the Cardinals to reunite with coach Jonathan Gannon, who was Sweat’s defensive coordinator in Philadelphia for two seasons.
A recent report indicated the Cardinals do not intend to trade Sweat.
More than 90 percent of the players selected in the 2026 NFL draft have signed their rookie contracts. Among the players who remain unsigned, there are two big clusters, at the top of the third round and the top of the fourth round.
The first six players drafted in the third round are still unsigned: Cardinals quarterback Carson Beck, Broncos defensive tackle Tyler Onyedim, Raiders defensive end Keyron Crawford, Eagles tackle Markel Bell, Bears tight end Sam Roush and 49ers edge rusher Romello Height.
The first seven players drafted in the fourth round are also unsigned: Raiders cornerback Jermond McCoy, Bills tackle Jude Bowry, Jets defensive tackle Darrell Jackson Jr., Cardinals defensive tackle Kaleb Proctor, Chargers wide receiver Brenen Thompson, Texans guard Febechi Nwaiwu and 49ers defensive tackle Gracen Halton.
Those 13 players make up the majority of the 2026 draft picks who haven’t signed their rookie contracts yet.
Bills General Manager Brandon Beane said on the team’s YouTube show that high third and fourth-round picks are encouraged by the players’ union to ask for contract provisions that the players in the previous round are getting.
“A lot of years it was the third round took forever,” Beane said. “The union is constantly trying to push down everything from the second round into the third round, and then the third round to make the fourth round better. In this CBA it feels like the fourth round has become more difficult.”
Beane said he understand why Bowry’s agent doesn’t want him to sign until he sees what other fourth-round picks can get, but he thinks it will work itself out before training camp.
“Sometimes agents are a little afraid to do something if the guy in front of them hasn’t done it,” Beane said. “They don’t want to look bad. It’s all recruiting. Jude’s been great. Until it’s done it’s not done, but we’re optimistic.”
A handful of first- and second-round picks also remain unsigned. Every player picked in the fifth, sixth and seventh rounds has signed.
Word on Monday morning was that quarterback Jacoby Brissett would attend the Cardinals’ mandatory minicamp this week and he’s not the only member of the team who decided to report after missing the team’s voluntary offseason sessions.
Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports that edge rusher Josh Sweat is also in attendance. Both players faced fines if they did not report to this week’s minicamp.
Sweat is in his second season with the Cardinals and there were reports of trade interest from other clubs, but a report last week indicated that Arizona will not be making a deal. Sweat, who also missed voluntary work last year, had 12 sacks in his first season with the team.
Brissett has been looking for an adjustment to his contract that addresses his status as the likely starter for the Cardinals to open the season. Gardner Minshew, who signed with the team this season and has a larger guaranteed salary than Brissett, and third-round pick Carson Beck are the other quarterbacks in the mix for the NFC West team.
