Arizona Cardinals QB Battle: Jacoby Brissett Fighting Off Rookie Carson Beck in Camp
The Arizona Cardinals were not supposed to have a training camp quarterback controversy. Jacoby Brissett was signed to be the veteran bridge starter. Carson Beck was drafted in the third round to develop for a year or two.
Then camp opened, Beck started throwing accurate passes, Brissett had a couple of rough practices, and now head coach Mike LaFleur is having to publicly address whether Brissett is still the guy heading toward the season opener.
LaFleur was careful with his answer earlier this week. He said Brissett is still the starter. He also said the team is going to give both quarterbacks a real look during preseason games, and that the decision would be based on who gives the team the best chance to win in September.
That is not exactly a vote of confidence. Coaches who are fully committed to their starter do not talk about giving both guys a real look. They give the starter reps with the ones and get the backup enough work to be ready.
Beck is an interesting case. He was a preseason Heisman contender at Georgia coming into the 2024 season, then had a mostly disappointing final year that dropped him from a projected first-rounder to a third-round pick. Arizona got him at good value and probably expected him to redshirt in year one. Now they have to decide whether he is actually ready to play, or whether the training camp buzz is just August noise.
Brissett has been in this exact situation before. He was the veteran who bridged the gap in Cleveland before Deshaun Watson arrived, in Washington before Jayden Daniels showed up, and in New England during the Cam Newton era. He knows how to be the professional in the room and how to compete without getting bitter. If Beck ends up winning the job, Brissett will handle it the right way.
What is worth watching is whether Kyler Murray is even a factor here. Wait, no. Murray was traded in the spring. That is the whole reason Arizona is in this position. The Cardinals are in a full rebuild after moving on from Murray, and this quarterback battle is just the latest sign of how completely they are starting over.
The Cardinals are picking in the top half of the 2027 draft no matter what happens this year. That is the honest projection. Whether Brissett or Beck starts Week 1, Arizona is going to be one of the four or five worst teams in the NFC, and the entire season is really about developing young players and evaluating whether Beck is a long-term answer at quarterback.
If Beck wins the job now, the Cardinals get 17 games of tape and a real answer by January. If Brissett starts, Beck redshirts and Arizona has to make the same evaluation next August.
LaFleur has already tipped his hand a little. The QB1 job is open. Beck has a real chance. And Cardinals fans should probably be rooting for the rookie to win it, because the sooner he plays, the sooner the franchise knows what it has.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
