There had been four unsigned rookie quarterbacks. There are now three.
Via Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, the Cardinals and quarterback Carson Beck have agreed to terms on a four-year, $7.4 million deal, as the Cardinals gather for training camp.
The amount was never in question. It’s slotted. There’s nothing to negotiate.
The question is whether he got more guarantees than others around him received, given the position he plays. Eventually, the contract will be reported and the full percentage of the guarantees will be known.
For now, Beck is under contract. He can embark on an effort to disrupt the current plan to make veteran Jacoby Brissett the starter. And the chances of that could increase, if Brissett and the Cardinals don’t work out a new deal before camp opens — and if Brissett declines to practice until they do.
Three other rookie quarterbacks are unsigned: Raiders quarterback Fernando Mendoza, Rams quarterback Ty Simpson, and Steelers quarterback Drew Allar.
Cardinals Clips
Cardinals edge rusher BJ Ojulari returned from a torn ACL to play in eight games last season, but the 2023 second-round pick didn’t feel all the way back from the injury that wiped out his second NFL season in August.
Ojulari had one sack last year, but told Cardinals reporter Kyle Odegard that he began to feel back to himself during this year’s offseason program. Ojulari has reframed his goals for the season as a result of that change in circumstances.
“My motivation level is very high,” Ojulari said. “I believe I can be a double-digit sack guy. Now for me, it’s go showcase it. We had a lot of guys drafted in our edge class that are doing some great things, and I want to be another one of those guys. I believe in my ability.”
Josh Sweat was the leading pass rusher in Arizona with 12 sacks last season, but the team was missing a reliable running mate for him off the edge. If Ojulari can provide that, the defense should be harder for opponents to handle in head coach Mike LaFleur’s debut season.
Training camp season is just about here.
Veteran players from the Cardinals and Panthers are due to report to camp on Wednesday, which will make them the first two teams to have their full squads in place this summer. They have the earliest start date in the league because they will be taking part in the Hall of Fame Game in Canton, Ohio on August 6.
The Panthers will open up camp with right tackle Taylor Moton and cornerback Jaycee Horn on the non-football injury list. Moton is sidelined by a blood clot in his lung and the team expects him to play this season, but he is set to be out into the regular season. Horn is recovering from a cut on his foot and is due back much sooner.
Quarterback Jacoby Brissett’s status will be the big question once the Cardinals begin practicing. He did not practice during the spring while looking for a revised contract and has still not agreed to one, so his participation will be something to watch this week.
The Seahawks and Patriots are next up on the reporting list. They will have their veterans in camp on Friday and all 32 teams will be ready to go on July 28.
Cardinals director of college scouting Ryan Gold has two different problems arising from allegations of violating the NFL’s gambling policy.
First, Gold has been suspended indefinitely by the league. Second, via David Purdum of ESPN, the Arizona Department of Gaming is investigating the situation.
A spokesperson for the Arizona Department of Gaming told Purdum that the department has been notified of the incident and “regularly work[s] with integrity monitoring organizations and sports leagues in situations like this.”
Gold is accused of making parlay wagers and sharing inside information regarding the team’s draft picks. His lawyer, Mike Caspino, previously told ESPN that Gold’s wife was making bets with a group of friends, and that Gold didn’t know the team’s draft picks before they were made.
There has been some online chatter that Gold personally placed a wager on a parlay regarding the Cardinals’ first five picks in the draft. That would be, even if Gold had full information as to the team’s draft board, a difficult prediction to make because it takes only one team taking one player sooner than expected to send everything sideways.
As we understand it, Gold is accused of sharing information about the team’s intended first-round pick, running back Jeremiyah Love. Gold will say, we believe, that he didn’t know Love would be the third overall pick, and that only owner Michael Bidwill and G.M. Monti Ossenfort knew. The league will say, we believe, that Gold’s title and job duties put him in position to make a strong educated guess — especially since there were no surprises with the first and second overall picks.
It creates a gray area regarding inside information. Gold possibly wasn’t in position to know the exact truth, but he knew more than the average person by nature of his employment.
As a source with another team explained it, the NFL wouldn’t have made the accusation if they didn’t believe they had the proof they needed. Really, why would the NFL shine a spotlight on what has become its first inside-information scandal in the age of legalized gambling if they weren’t sure a violation had occurred.
Gold nevertheless will appeal, and he should have a full and fair chance to defend himself.
The Cardinals report to training camp on Wednesday. Their biggest question is: Will quarterback Jacoby Brissett report, and if he does, will he practice or hold-in?
Brissett has spent the offseason engaged in a contract dispute with the team, skipping the voluntary portion of the work.
Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports that, on the eve of camp, the sides have come to no resolution. Brissett, who serves as his own agent, has negotiated with the Cardinals the past several months.
The team acknowledges Brissett deserves a raise over the $4.88 million he’s due to earn in 2026, per Rapoport, but the sides have yet to agree on the number. Brissett’s deal has a max value of $5.39 million in this, the final year, but only $1.5 million is guaranteed.
Brissett is the presumptive starter in new coach Mike LaFleur’s offense, but the Cardinals also have Gardner Minshew II and rookie Carson Beck.
Brissett started 12 games for the Cardinals last season, completing 64.9 percent of his passes for 3,366 yards with 23 touchdowns and eight interceptions. The Cardinals went 1-11 in his starts.
The NFL Players Association released its annual Rising Stars list on Tuesday and the first overall pick of this year’s draft is one of the players at the top.
Raiders quarterback Fernando Mendoza is No. 1 on the list of the 10 rookies that the NFLPA projects to be future members of the Top 50 list of licensed player product sales. There is also a list of 10 players with NFL experience who have not been on the Top 50 and it is topped by Saints quarterback Tyler Shough.
Mendoza is followed on the list by Cowboys safety Caleb Downs, Cardinals running back Jeremiyah Love, Titans wide receiver Carnell Tate, Eagles wide receiver Makai Lemon, Commanders linebacker Sonny Styles, Saints wide receiver Jordyn Tyson, Giants linebacker Arvell Reese, Ravens wide receiver Ja’Kobi Lane, and Buccaneers edge rusher Rueben Bain.
The list of veteran players also includes Bears tight end Colston Loveland, Raiders tight end Brock Bowers, Chiefs running back Kenneth Walker, Panthers wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan, Buccaneers wide receiver Emeka Egbuka, Cardinals tight end Trey McBride, Dolphins running back De’Von Achane, Bills running back James Cook, and Patriots cornerback Christian Gonzalez.
Training camps will be opening soon. Before 2011, that meant most teams engaging in a game of beat the clock with most of their draft picks.
Nowadays, most contracts are signed by Memorial Day weekend.
This year, there are four notable exceptions. They are the first four quarterbacks taken in the draft: Raiders quarterback Fernando Mendoza (first overall), Rams quarterback Ty Simpson (13th overall), Cardinals quarterback Carson Beck (third round, 65th overall), and Steelers quarterback Drew Allar (third round, 76th overall).
There’s not much to negotiate. The dollars are set by a formula based on the draft slot. Pressure points in the past have related to signing bonus cash flow, voiding of guarantees, and offsets on guarantees.
Surely, all of the deals will get done. Rookie holdouts are now very rare.
But no deal is done until it’s done. And it’s getting a little glaring for the first four quarterbacks taken in the draft.
Cardinals director of college scouting Ryan Gold, who has been suspended indefinitely for violating the NFL’s gambling policy, calls the allegations “blatantly false.” He plans to appeal.
And, like anyone else accused of wrongdoing, he’s entitled to due process aimed at ensuring a fair hearing. (It’s unlikely it’ll happen, but it should.)
His lawyer, Mike Caspino, has given a preview of the defense to ESPN, claiming that only Cardinals owner Michael Bidwill and G.M. Monti Ossenfort knew the picks before they were made.
As a source with extensive knowledge of how the draft works explained it to PFT, Gold would have had a pretty good idea as to the next pick. Unless Ossenfort kept the draft board hidden from the executive who ran the team’s college scouting efforts (which culminates in, you know, drafting the players), Gold would have known the top players on the board as each pick approached.
That information easily could have been shared, with anyone.
If, for example, the Cardinals were four picks away from being on the clock, Gold would have known the top four players on the Arizona board. If the four names had been shared and the other three players were the next three players picked, Gold wouldn’t have needed Bidwill or Ossenfort to tell him who the next pick would be.
When it comes to round one, where the Cardinals had the third overall pick, the pre-draft process would have included plenty of meetings and discussions about how the top of the board will play out. Everyone knew the Raiders would select quarterback Fernando Mendoza with the first overall pick. The draft started with the Jets at No. 2. And the Cardinals would have had a plan in place for what to do at No. 3 based on the various potential players the Jets would have taken at No. 2.
Even that wasn’t much of a mystery. It was David Bailey or Arvell Reese. (The Jets took Bailey.)
Again, it’s possible the Ossenfort went full Belichick and told no one that Ossenfort was planning to take running back Jeremiyah Love if the draft started with Mendoza and Bailey. Still, unless Ossenfort ran a full-blown misdirection on the top executive responsible for college scouting, Gold would have known which way the wind was blowing. Ossenfort, at a minimum, would have asked enough questions about Love for Gold to conclude, “I think he’s gonna take Love.”
That said, Gold is indeed entitled to a full and fair hearing. Those who made the decision to suspend him shouldn’t be the ones handling the appeal.
But even with the NFL’s ability to divert lawsuits into the secret, rigged, kangaroo court of arbitration now damaged if not destroyed, current employees continue to have no option other than to submit to the existing procedures.
In a statement issued to PFT and others on Sunday, attorney Mike Caspino said the allegations of gambling violations against Cardinals director of college scouting Ryan Gold are “blatantly false.” Caspino elaborated on his position in comments to Adam Schefter of ESPN.
As to the claim that Gold engaged in gambling on NFL games, Caspino said Gold’s wife was making $10 bets per week with a group of high-school friends — and that Gold wasn’t involved. As to the more serious allegation that Gold had shared inside information about the team’s draft picks before they were announced, Caspino said that Gold didn’t know the draft picks in advance, and that only owner Michael Bidwill and G.M. Monti Ossenfort had the information.
The fact that Ossenfort came up in the Bill Belichick school of extreme secrecy makes this claim plausible. Some teams notoriously protect the identity of its draft picks, to the point of engaging in internal misdirection. In 2005, for example, then-Dolphins coach Nick Saban told staffers that the team would be using the second overall pick on Michigan receiver Braylon Edwards. Instead, Saban picked Auburn running back Ronnie Brown.
Also, Chris Simms has explained on PFT Live that, during his time working for the Patriots, the room containing the draft board was closely protected from access to anyone other than an extremely small group of people.
That said, there’s still a lag between the time that the name is shared with the draft room and the moment the pick is announced. (It’s unclear when the information was allegedly shared, relative to when the picks were announced.)
Caspino has vowed to appeal. The outcome may hinge on whether Gold will get a fair and impartial hearing from a neutral party, or whether the league will be handling the second look at the decision the league has already made.
Bet on the latter. (Actually don’t bet; it’s just a figure of speech.)
On Friday, the NFL announced that Cardinals director of college scouting Ryan Gold has been suspended indefinitely for violating the league’s gambling policy.
On Sunday, Gold’s lawyer issued a statement denying the allegations.
“Ryan Gold has been an outstanding NFL executive for over a decade,” attorney Mike Caspino said. “The accusations made by the league, regarding his participation in prohibited gambling activities, are blatantly false. We have demanded an appeal and we look forward to clearing his good name.”
The league has accused Gold of providing inside information regarding the Cardinals’ draft selections before the picks were announced, and of participating in parlay bets on NFL and college games.
Gold shouldn’t expect any support from the Cardinals. The team said Friday that it “fully support[s]” the league’s decision. The Cardinals also have deactivated Gold’s bio page on the team’s website.
