The Arizona Cardinals have reached the point where the conversation can no longer be avoided: how long can Jacoby Brissett keep the starting job before Carson Beck gets his shot?
At 1-4, Arizona has already gone from a promising Week 1 win over the now 0-5 Los Angeles Chargers to a four-game skid, and the last two losses have made the case for change even louder. In Week 4 against the New York Giants, the Cardinals had a chance to steal the game late, lining up at the 4-yard line while trailing by six with 11 seconds left. They burned their final timeout, then Brissett threw a pick-six - the third of his single-game career-high three interceptions.
Then came Sunday’s 45-21 loss to the Detroit Lions, and that one looked even worse. Detroit entered Week 5 with the league’s 31st-ranked scoring defense at 31.8 points allowed per game, the NFL’s worst total defense at 423.8 yards allowed per game, and the third-worst third-down defense, giving up conversions on 52.8% of opponents’ attempts.
Arizona opened with a touchdown pass from Brissett to tight end Teagan Quitoriano, then went into a brutal stretch of three-and-outs on its next five drives. The Cardinals followed that with an interception, and Brissett didn’t find the end zone again until the game was basically out of reach.
That kind of result makes the question unavoidable: is it time for Carson Beck in Arizona?
Brissett’s numbers on the surface don’t scream disaster. He has completed 66.3% of his passes for 1,110 yards with nine touchdowns, five interceptions and an 85.2 passer rating. But the production has mostly piled up once the outcome is already slipping away.
And this isn’t just a 2026 issue. In 2025, Brissett threw for 3,366 yards, the second most in the NFL since he became a starter in Week 6, but Arizona still won only one of his 11 starts. That lone victory came against the Dallas Cowboys, who had the worst scoring defense in the league that season, allowing 30.1 points per game.
Brissett is Brissett at this point: 33 years old, on his sixth NFL team in 11 seasons, and limited as a full-time starter.
Beck, meanwhile, gives Arizona something to consider. The 2026 third-round pick played only one preseason game - the Hall of Fame game against the Carolina Panthers - but he made the most of it, going 15-for-19 for 188 yards and a touchdown. A rib injury wiped out the rest of his preseason development, and he has been the emergency third quarterback on game day so far this season.
“If we think that's what's best," said Cardinals head coach Mike LaFleur on Monday when asked about moving Beck to an active role. "We haven't had those discussions. We'll end up having that discussion [Tuesday]."
A one-game preseason sample is hardly enough to crown a rookie, but Arizona has reason to start building Beck up now. The next two weeks bring tough tests against the Los Angeles Rams and the Denver Broncos, which makes Week 8 a more logical target for a switch.
That’s when the Cardinals travel to AT&T Stadium to face the Dallas Cowboys, the same team Brissett beat in 2025 and a defense that currently ranks seventh-worst in the NFL in scoring, allowing 27.2 points per game in 2026. The Cowboys are coming off an embarrassing loss to the 0-4 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who picked up their first win of the season with undrafted rookie quarterback Jalon Daniels making his second career start.
Beck is an older rookie who turns 25 in November, and Arizona would benefit from giving him meaningful reps for the second half of this season. The Cardinals also have bigger long-term decisions coming, including how they plan to use another high draft pick in the loaded 2027 NFL Draft.
If Beck shows enough, they can stay flexible and go with the best player available. If he doesn’t, the front office may need to take a harder look at the next quarterback class.
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