The Cardinals are making a change under center, and Gardner Minshew II is the one getting the call.
Head coach Mike LaFleur announced that Minshew will start moving forward, a decision that comes one day after Arizona pulled off a 33-30 overtime comeback win over the Dallas Cowboys. Jacoby Brissett is moving back to Emergency QB3, while rookie Carson Beck will serve as the backup.
Minshew’s return to the starting role is a notable turn after a long run of stops around the league. His last start came in Week 16 of the 2025 season with the Kansas City Chiefs, a game in which he also suffered a knee injury. Before that, he spent time with the Jacksonville Jaguars, Philadelphia Eagles, Indianapolis Colts and Las Vegas Raiders, where he was benched before Week 6 of the 2024 season after a rough start.
Arizona is betting on the momentum Minshew created against Dallas. He entered the game in the final two minutes of the third quarter with the Cardinals down 17-3, then threw for 188 yards and three touchdowns to help push the team to 3-5. It was the kind of spark the Cardinals hadn’t been getting from Brissett.
Brissett’s numbers this season were solid enough on paper, but the results never really followed. He went 1-11 as the starter in 2025, throwing for 3,366 yards, 23 touchdowns and eight interceptions, which helped lead to a one-year, $15.5 million extension that could reach up to $21 million after a brief offseason holdout.
This year, though, the slide continued. Through eight starts in 2026, he had 1,719 passing yards with a 10/7 TD-INT ratio, and Arizona went 2-5 in those games.
Minshew’s first start of the season won’t come with much breathing room. The Cardinals head to Seattle in Week 9, where they haven’t beaten the Seahawks since 2021. On top of that, he’ll be facing a Mike Macdonald defense that’s allowing the fewest yards and third-fewest points per game.
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