OWINGS MILLS, Md. - Jacoby Brissett has spent 11 NFL seasons bouncing from team to team, but this latest move has given him a different kind of challenge: learning a new offense in a hurry while trying to help a battered Ravens team keep its season from slipping away.
Brissett said Thursday that the pace has been relentless since Baltimore acquired him from the Arizona Cardinals last week.
“It’s definitely a crash course,” Brissett said Thursday in his first comments to reporters since he was acquired by the Baltimore Ravens from the Arizona Cardinals in a trade last week. “No question.
“It’s been a long but fast week or so.”
The Ravens have given him a little more time than usual to get up to speed. Brissett arrived over the weekend, and because Baltimore does not play the winless Los Angeles Chargers until Monday night, he has an extra day to prepare.
Even so, the clock is ticking. The Ravens are 4-5, have dropped four straight, and have managed only 43 points over that stretch.
Baltimore brought Brissett in to steady an offense that has been thrown into chaos by injuries. Lamar Jackson is out indefinitely with a right thumb injury, Tyler Huntley is done for the year after right toe surgery, and the Ravens had to start undrafted rookie Joe Fagnano in last Thursday’s 33-10 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars.
That left Brissett with a clear assignment: help the offense function again and keep the Ravens afloat until Jackson potentially returns late in the regular season.
“We all know he can throw the ball,” said Ravens No. 1 wide receiver Zay Flowers. “He can spin it, but he’s just been connecting with us, telling us how he feels about a route, where we should be, talking to (Derrick Henry) about certain things coming out of the backfield. He’s just letting his experience show.”
Brissett’s first practice with the team came Wednesday, and he stayed after both Wednesday and Thursday sessions for extra work with Flowers and other receivers. The veteran said he’s trying to keep the adjustment simple.
“It’s hard for me to say what type of impact (I can have) until it shows,” Brissett said. “I’m really just coming out, trying to do my job to the best of my ability, be a good teammate, keep things simple (and) not try to overcomplicate this thing right now. … Just excited for this opportunity and trying to make the most of it.”
Brissett, 33, has already started 20 games over the past two seasons with Arizona. His 2025 numbers were solid - just under 65 percent completions, 3,366 passing yards, 23 touchdowns and eight interceptions - but the season also came with plenty of turbulence.
The New England Patriots’ 2016 third-round pick spent much of the offseason away from the Cardinals facility while seeking a contract that better reflected his standing as the starter. He eventually signed a reworked one-year, $15.5 million deal in July, but the year still turned rocky. In parts of eight games, he averaged 5.6 yards per attempt and threw seven interceptions.
His final stretch in Arizona was messy, too. Against Dallas, Brissett and the Cardinals’ offense struggled, and coach Mike LaFleur turned to Gardner Minshew, who helped spark a comeback win. Then Minshew suffered a season-ending elbow injury a week later, while Brissett was already in Baltimore preparing for another shot.
“It was obviously a tough situation,” Brissett said. “Then you get the news like the next day or two … and then you kind of have to get your mind wrapped around another situation.
So, it’s kind of all over the place, but having those extra days kind of helped me settle my emotions down and then obviously refocusing and figuring out what the next steps were. Then, getting here and figuring out that I’m going to be here and figuring out how to attack this situation.”
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