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Under the direction of general manager Monti Ossenfort and head coach Jonathan Gannon, the Cardinals are barreling toward a third straight losing season — and the moment requires action, not patience.
The Arizona brass fulfilled that requirement last week. The team named journeyman Jacoby Brissett its new starting quarterback, handing him the gig over highly paid face of the franchise Kyler Murray. Even though the team has said Murray could start when he comes off injured reserve in several weeks, the Kyler Murray era in the desert is ostensibly over.
To the many fans who delight at that prospect, a word of caution: Be careful what you wish for.
The backlash against Murray has heightened in recent years, as the fanbase grew increasingly and justifiably impatient with the team’s lack of playoff wins since 2015. Does Murray, the 2019 No. 1 overall pick, have some culpability in that? Of course.
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The in-rhythm passing game has struggled the past few years, the offense has failed in critical moments and injuries have kept Murray sidelined too often.
But will the Cardinals be better off without him? It’s doubtful.
While Murray may not have lifted the team to championship heights, he’s rarely been the root issue. Murray played well in three of the four seasons with head coach Kliff Kingsbury at the helm, highlighted by an 11-6 season in 2021 that was short-circuited in part by injuries to stars DeAndre Hopkins, J.J. Watt and Rodney Hudson.
Kingsbury was fired and Gannon was hired, but the Murray-led offense continued to produce. Arizona finished ninth in the league in offensive Expected Points Added, a measure of offensive performance, during Murray’s eight starts in 2023. Last season, the Cardinals were 10th. In those same windows, the defense was abysmal, ranking 30th and 24th, respectively.
Even though this season started slowly, the Cardinals could have banked on Murray reverting to form in hopes of mounting a playoff run after a string of excruciatingly close losses. Instead, they officially switched to career backup Brissett, who had performed admirably for three games — and then watched him lay an egg in a 44-22 loss to Seattle on Sunday that was out of reach after the first quarter.
Despite all the talk about the offense performing more smoothly with Brissett at the reins, he and Murray are now side-by-side in advanced quarterback production metrics like Total QBR and EPA per play. Career-wise, Murray has been much better than Brissett, which suggests the obvious move is to start Murray when he’s eligible to come off IR next month.
But at this point, though, it’s clear the relationship between player and organization is fractured. Both sides are ready to move on.
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No good options
So where does that leave the Cardinals?
Brissett is under contract next season at a cheap $7.2 million salary, and with few options available on the open market, he will likely return as the starter. But here’s the problem: Ossenfort and Gannon have been rebuilding for three years and should be on a clear road toward Super Bowl contention, and Brissett is not a championship-caliber quarterback.
If Ossenfort and Gannon keep their jobs — a big if — the spotlight will be intense heading into 2026. They may be desperate to find a young signal-caller with upside to satisfy owner Michael Bidwill and the fanbase. The draft is, theoretically, a great place to look. But if the season ended today, the Cardinals would be drafting 11th overall, behind six teams with quarterback needs of their own.
That leaves Arizona two likely choices next offseason. The Cardinals can part with multiple first-round picks to move up for an unknown quarterback prospect — flameouts Matt Leinart and Josh Rosen were their other top-10 QB picks this century, in addition to Murray — or roll with Brissett and hope he can put together an outlier season to save everyone’s job.
While Brissett has put together some solid passing performances, he doesn’t have nearly the pedigree of the Cardinals’ two retread success stories: Kurt Warner and Carson Palmer. So it’s possible one of those scenarios could work out, but it’s certainly not the most realistic outcome.
As for Murray, the outlook is rosier.
He still has talent that can’t be taught. During a year in which Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold, Daniel Jones and Mac Jones have all shined after leaving their original teams for greener pastures, it’s not a stretch to imagine Murray becoming the next high pick to find a career renaissance elsewhere.
A divorce between Murray and the Cardinals is probably needed. Murray wasn’t able to put the team on his back and haul it to playoff success, a la Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson. And Arizona didn’t do a good job of helping him out, failing to support Murray with a top-10 scoring defense in any season of his career.
But while the majority of local fans may rejoice in Murray’s imminent departure, it’s hard to imagine the move will catapult the Cardinals into contention. The Cardinals have put themselves in this situation, where the only way to escape the trap ensnaring them is to chew off a wing to break free. And one-winged birds don’t fly very far.
So, when Murray goes, it probably just means Ossenfort and Gannon will soon follow out the door. And Bidwill’s carousel of ineptitude will keep spinning.
