The 2026 Arizona Cardinals seem to officially be on a spiral.
Arizona is now on a four-game losing streak, two of which came in blowout fashion. The 45-21 loss at the hands of the Detroit Lions seems to be putting a bow on a cole stretch, with sparse opportunities for their next victory on the horizon.
This raises questions as to how much more runway the Cardinals should gift starting QB Jacoby Brissett. The stage is setting up for a change to be made eventually, but are those plans imminent?
Explore this conundrum below.
Cardinals Seemingly Have No Plans for QB Change
Calls for Brissett to be sent to the bench are plentiful, although that doesn’t seem to be in the Cardinals’ immediate plans.
John Gambadoro (Arizona Sports) believes that the second-year Cardinal will remain QB1 for the moment.
“From what I can gather there are no plans to change the starting QB at this time.”
This has potential to be a disappointing development for fans. While the 33-year-old is far from the core problem, he is arguably limiting an offense that has potential to be explosive.
Brissett’s aDOT (average depth of target) is just 7.6 yards, which easily places in the bottom 10 among those who qualify (PFF).
Some of this falls in line with an offensive line in disarray, but Brissett is also very risk-averse in general. For all the criticism that Kyler Murray saw while in Arizona, he was far more willing to push the ball downfield on average.
There’s also the compete vs. build for the future conundrum. Brissett is very unlikely to be a member of the Cardinals in 2027, so just how much value does this bring the organization?
This is likely a conversation the organization will have on a week-by-week basis moving forward. Examine the potential process that the franchise might undertake below.
When Arizona Could Make Change
The ultimate decision to make a quarterback change could be telling within the next two weeks or so.
There’s a world in which the Cardinals move on from Gardner Minshew II via trade. That would be unlikely to arise before rookie Carson Beck is ready to become part of the active players on gameday, however.
Beck has little chance to be active in week six. Arizona is taking on the Los Angeles Rams and their powerful defensive front. Week seven would be a challenging ramp-up as well against an elite Denver Broncos‘ defense.
Despite this, there seems to be a natural stepping off point when it comes to the Brissett experience. Giving Beck his first career start against a porous Dallas Cowboys defense on Nov. 1 makes a great deal of sense.
Whether this is the ultimate result or not is up in the air. However, the cleanest transition appears to be trading Minshew by the end of October and moving to Beck from week eight on.
Until then, the Cardinals are preparing for an extreme challenge against the Rams. The Cardinals take on Los Angeles at 1:05 P.M. MST on Oct. 18 in a road battle.
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