When it comes to the NFL’s effort to send the Brian Flores case to arbitration, it’s apparently not over until the NFL says it’s over.
Regardless, the presiding judge has now made it abundantly clear that it’s over.
Despite a court ruling and an appeals court ruling that the claims brought by Brian Flores (against the Dolphins, Giants, Broncos, and Texans), Ray Horton (against the Titans), and Steve Wilks (against the Cardinals) must be decided in court, the NFL filed a motion to reconsider the ruling that slammed the door on arbitration.
On Wednesday, Judge Valerie Caproni denied the NFL’s latest motion.
The 15-page ruling begins with an expression of exasperation regarding the nearly four-and-a-half-year-old litigation: “This case continues to linger at the starting block. Or, to use a more fitting metaphor, this case continues to linger as the teams mill about in the players’ tunnels.”
Elsewhere in the written decision, there are some not-so-subtle indications of the judge’s impatience with the NFL’s efforts to keep fighting over a settled issue. From page 9: “Defendants can articulate no reason why these arguments were not raised in their response to Plaintiffs’ Motion for Reconsideration. . . . With sophisticated law firms, it is hard to fathom a plausible explanation.”
Also, from the same page: “Defendants opted for an iterative stream of arguments to buy themselves a few more months hanging out in the players’ tunnels. . . .”
Putting it another way, and as a judge said to the opposing lawyer in a case I was handling more than 20 years ago, “At some point, you stop arguing to the court and start arguing with the court.”
Judge Caproni’s order concludes like this: “Defendants’ seemingly-never-ending list of arguments why they should not have to litigate this case has run its course. Stepping back, while Defendants are free to spend endless attorneys’ fees to pursue the forum they think will be most advantageous to them, arguments about the superior efficiencies of arbitration ring hollow. . . . Instead of proceeding, discovery and motion practice for these three teams have been further delayed so this Court can deal with these teams’ attempt to take yet another run at how to avoid district court litigation and will, presumably, be delayed further while they pursue yet another appeal.”
It’s a mostly tactful way of saying to the NFL, “Enough. You’ve lost on this issue. Stop asking for arbitration and get to work on defending yourself in the litigation.”
Attorney Doug Wigdor issues a statement regarding the latest decision.
“At this point, the NFL and its teams have lost on this issue at the Second Circuit, were denied en banc review by the Second Circuit, were denied Supreme Court review and have now had the District Court twice confirm that the claims will not proceed in an NFL-controlled forum,” Wigdor said. “We hope the NFL and its teams will accept these rulings and proceed with the litigation.”
Presumably, that will happen. One of these days. Or, more accurately, one of these years.
Cardinals Clips
It’s the five-year anniversary of the first championship the Rams have won while based in L.A. During the 2026 season, they’ll be commemorating the Super Bowl win by giving their fans a special gift.
The Rams announced on Thursday that the first 60,000 who enter SoFi Stadium for the Week 6 game against the Cardinals will receive a “limited-edition replica Championship ring with a special feature!”
The Cardinals game was likely hand-picked for one important reason — it’s the 2026 Rams home game that is likely to have the highest concentration of Rams fans.
It’s been one of the basic realities of returning to the market the Rams (and Raiders) abandoned for 20 years. A full generation of Angelenos came of age with no geographic connection to any NFL team. They were able to pick whichever team they wanted to follow.
Now, when those teams come to town, the local fans of that team are just as likely to show up for the game as the Rams fans are.
Enter the Cardinals. Of the eight teams that will play the Rams at SoFi Stadium this season (Giants, Bills, Cardinals, Chargers, Packers, Chiefs, Cowboys, and Seahawks), the Arizona game will be the one at which the fewest fans of the other team will show up.
It helps that the Cardinals aren’t expected to be very good. Even if they somehow run the table for the first five weeks (Chargers, Seahawks, 49ers, Giants, Lions), it’s unlikely that Cardinals fans will overrun the building the way that, say, 49ers fans do.
So, yes, if the goal is to ensure that the replica Rams rings end up on the fingers of Rams fans, Week 6 was the best occasion for the giveaway.
Quarterback Jacoby Brissett is still in a contract dispute with the Cardinals. But that didn’t stop him from preparing to be the team’s starter this week.
Via Jeremy Fowler of ESPN, Brissett brought several teammates to South Florida this week to work out in preparation for training camp.
Brissett posted a picture to social media showing himself, Marvin Harrison Jr., Trey McBride, Elijah Higgins, Kedon Slovis, and Semi Fehoko after a workout.
While Brissett did not attend the voluntary portion of the offseason program, he was at the team’s mandatory minicamp last month — though he did not participate in practice.
The Cardinals are implementing a new offense under head coach Mike LaFleur, who spent the last three seasons as Rams offensive coordinator.
Brissett is currently slated to earn $4.88 million in 2026, with a max value of $5.39 million, but only $1.5 million is guaranteed. LaFleur said earlier in the offseason that he wasn’t concerned with Brissett’s absence from the offseason program, as the quarterback has “done probably everything we’ve ever done schematically.”
Cardinals veterans are scheduled to report to training camp on July 22.
The Cardinals locked up left tackle Paris Johnson through the 2027 season by exercising their $19 million option on his contract, but that hasn’t stopped him from starting to think about his next long-term contract.
Josh Weinfuss of ESPN.com reported in June that Johnson wants to be “a $40 million-per-year left tackle,” but Commanders tackle Laremy Tunsil is currently at the top of the market with an average annual salary of just over $30 million and that would make for the kind of jump that one rarely sees in the NFL. Johnson was asked about that comment during an appearance on the PHNX Cardinals podcast and explained that “it’s not me thinking about getting the money, per se,” but about the frame of mind he wants to be in while facing pass rushers who are making that kind of money.
“When I started speaking on that, the question was more about how you would grade an elite tackle and how you start to measure yourself as an elite tackle,” Johnson said. “My answer was exactly this: when I watch tape, when I go to practice and when I play in a game, my mindset is to be the $40 million man. When I watch my tape, I ask myself, ‘Would you pay this guy $40 million?’ That’s how I watch my tape. That’s how I go out to practice. That’s how I play. Because the guy I’m lining up against, if he’s worth something, he’s worth at least $35 million to $50 million. Now, the tackle market isn’t there. The tackle market usually goes up by about one million over the next guy, and that’s just what it is. The D-linemen are not going for that. That’s another conversation. But my mindset is that elite guys who are rushing the quarterback — that’s what the market is for them. And I believe it takes an equivalent-level player to shut that guy down. So I’m not going out there thinking, ‘Pay me $28 million or $28.5 million.’”
Myles Garrett was added to the list of pass rushers that Johnson will have to tangle with in 2026 and shutting those opponents down probably won’t get Johnson to $40 million, but it would make a strong case for moving closer to the top of the list for tackles when his next contract is finalized.
The NFL is making a significant change to the offseason calendar for the 2027 season.
Tom Pelissero of NFL Media reports that the free agent negotiating window will open on March 9 next year. That is the same date that the two-day window opened this year, but the change comes in how close it will be to the end of the Scouting Combine.
NFL teams will wrap up their examinations and interrogations of incoming prospects on March 8 in 2027, which moves the league away from having a week or so between the two events as they have in past years.
Under that setup, the Combine has always been rife with table-setting for free agency as agents and team executives are all in the same place with their minds on the same things. With that gap eliminated, there will likely be even more of that work being done in Indianapolis so that teams are ready to make moves right from the starting gun.
Cardinals tight end Trey McBride is signed through the 2029 season, so he has good reason to be interested in who will be doing the quarterbacking in Arizona over the coming years.
Jacoby Brissett and Gardner Minshew are the veteran options heading into 2026, but Brissett’s absence from most of the offseason program left plenty of work for Minshew and third-round pick Carson Beck. The prospect of striking gold with Beck is an appealing one for the Cardinals and McBride was asked for his early impressions of the rookie during an appearance on Bussin’ With the Boys.
“He’s huge. He looks like a tight end,” McBride said. “I’m like s—t, bigger than me, you know? But, no, he’s a stud. He throws the ball really well. I think he has a chance to be a really good player in this league. . . . I don’t know about Week 1 unless something crazy happens, but he definitely has a chance to be a guy for sure.”
The Cardinals took running back Jeremiyah Love in the first round this April and they’ll have a core that involves Love, McBride and Beck in place for several years if everything can break their way this fall.
Cardinals tight end Trey McBride respects the Seahawks, but doesn’t like them.
Asked on Bussin’ With The Boys which NFC West rival he dislikes the most, McBride picked Seattle, saying they’re a good team in a good stadium, which makes Seattle a difficult place to play.
“To be honest, I think it’s Seattle,” McBride said. “That’s a tough place to play. Their defense is a bunch of shit talkers. They have a really good team, too, so I feel like every time we go to Seattle it’s such a hostile environment. Lumen Field is such a cool place to play, and they’ve gotten the best of us the last couple times, so it would be nice to get back on the winning side.”
Asked if the Seahawks’ defense locked him up, McBride pushed back on that. When the Cardinals played at Seattle in Week 10, McBride had nine catches for 127 yards and a touchdown in a 44-22 loss.
“I don’t know about locked me up, I went for like 130, but we lost,” McBride said.
Although McBride personally has had a couple of big games in Seattle, the Cardinals are 0-8 against the Seahawks in McBride’s four seasons in Arizona.
The NFC West won more games than any other division in the NFL last season, but the Cardinals didn’t do much to contribute to the effort.
Arizona went 3-14 while the Seahawks, Rams and 49ers each won at least 12 games while advancing to at least the divisional round of the playoffs. The Seahawks beat the Rams in the NFC title game before winning the Super Bowl, so it wasn’t just regular season success for the division.
The Seahawks have most of their core players back while the 49ers hope to be healthier and the Rams have loaded up for another run by trading for Myles Garrett and Trent McDuffie this offseason. The Cardinals, on the other hand, have a new head coach in Mike LaFleur, an uncertain quarterback situation and low expectations to make a move up the standings in 2026.
During an appearance on SiriusXM NFL Radio, Cardinals cornerback Will Johnson said he loves the chance “to go against the best every week” and that he sees it as a chance to upset those expectations.
“I think we got a good opportunity in front of us to surprise a lot of people this year,” Johnson said. “They’re just continuing to try to stack the teams against us, but we gonna be ready when the time comes.”
Johnson credited LaFleur with doing a good job of establishing a new culture around the Cardinals and the hope is that leads to improvement on the field even if the overall circumstances mean that they might have the same view of the rest of the division come the end of the year.
The Cardinals will open training camp at State Farm Stadium on July 22.
The first of seven practices open to fans will happen two days later, on Friday, July 24. Five of the open practices are scheduled for 4 p.m. PT.
An exclusive practice for season-ticket members will take place as part of the league-wide “Back Together Weekend” on Aug. 2.
The final open practice on Sunday, Aug. 9 will be the annual red/white practice.
While parking and admission are free, digital tickets are required for entry. Tickets can be reserved by visiting www.azcardinals.com/camp.
The Cardinals have four preseason games, headlined by the Hall of Fame Game in Canton, Ohio, on Aug. 6.
The Cardinals will have a new radio play-by-play announcer for the 2026 season.
ESPN announced that Dave Pasch has signed an exclusive multi-year contract with the network. Pasch will add NFL coverage to the work he’s already been doing for ESPN covering the NBA, college football and college basketball.
The exclusive nature of the deal means that Pasch will leave his role with the Cardinals after 24 seasons.
“It’s been almost half my life, so it’s been quite the journey,” Pasch said, via the Cardinals’ website. “It’s a journey I did not think would come to an end. It’s one that I will look on with very fond memories and I think the biggest reason why is because of the people that I got to work with over the years.”
Pasch has worked for ESPN since 2003 and the network said more details on his NFL role will be announced in the coming weeks.
