Jacoby Brissett is walking into a season where the Arizona Cardinals are being treated like an afterthought, and he is not pretending that changes much. The 33-year-old quarterback has a reworked deal that could reach $21 million if incentives are met, but the bigger shift is that he is finally playing alongside core players for a second straight season, something that has not happened in his 11-year NFL career.
That matters now because the Cardinals are opening training camp with little national faith behind them, even though the offense returns most of its starters after finishing seventh in passing offense last season. Brissett, asked about the low expectations, said the Super Bowl is not tomorrow and that everybody is 0-0 right now. His point was simple: the season has not started, and the only place the Cardinals can prove anything is on the field.
The urgency is easy to understand. The NFC West is being framed as one of the toughest divisions in football, with the Los Angeles Rams having made major offseason moves through the draft and free agency and the Seattle Seahawks carrying the label of defending Super Bowl champions. Michael Wilson said the Cardinals have always not gotten a lot of respect, and he pointed to the schedule as the only argument that matters. Arizona has to play the Chargers in Week 1, Seattle the following week and San Francisco the week after that.
That is why the Cardinals’ internal confidence has a sharper edge than the outside view. The team is led by its fourth different head coach in a decade, Mike LaFleur, after Jonathan Gannon was fired following three seasons, and the recent record is hard to ignore. Arizona lost nine straight games to finish the 2025 season, and those losses came by an average of 16 points a game. That kind of collapse is not erased by a few upbeat quotes, especially when the Cardinals are sitting on the longest odds to reach the Super Bowl.
Still, the roster is built around the idea that continuity can keep them competitive. Brissett has one of the league’s best tight ends in Trey McBride, a former No. 4 overall pick in Marvin Harrison Jr., a versatile wide receiver in Kendrick Bourne and a deeper running back room that includes Tyler Allgeier. The Cardinals’ best case is not complicated: if the offense stays on track, they can make games in the NFC West uncomfortable.
LaFleur is not rushing to show everything yet. The Cardinals will play the Carolina Panthers in the Hall of Fame Game, and he will sit most of his starters, including Jeremiyah Love, the No. 3 overall pick. That keeps the focus on the longer race, not the August scoreline. For Brissett and a team that has heard the doubts for months, the first real test is whether a group built on continuity can turn belief into wins before the division pulls away.
