Baltimore is finalizing a trade for Jacoby Brissett, and the quarterback the Ravens just paid to save their season is one Arizona had already decided wasn’t good enough to start.
Brissett started eight games for the Cardinals this season before Gardner Minshew took the job from him, leading a 33-30 comeback win in Dallas that pushed Brissett down to third string. That’s Brissett’s run in Arizona in one sentence: good enough to start, then good enough to bench.
Lamar Jackson took the thumb injury that ended his afternoon against Buffalo on Baltimore’s first offensive snap. He needs surgery and is headed to injured reserve, with the team’s own staff calling it potentially season-ending. Tyler Huntley, who came in to relieve him, left that same game with a turf toe injury that is season-ending.
Baltimore’s top two quarterbacks are both off the field for the foreseeable future, one of them for good.
That left Joe Fagnano, an undrafted rookie out of UConn who’d never taken an NFL snap, to start in relief. He finished 10 of 21 for 91 yards with an interception and a lost fumble in a 36-10 loss to Buffalo. That’s the backstory. The subplot on Brissett is worse.
Baltimore is paying for a quarterback the Cardinals specifically moved on from three weeks ago, pulled to third string the moment Minshew led that comeback in Dallas. The Ravens are taking on his contract for a player who was two spots down his own team’s depth chart when the phone rang.
I wouldn’t hand the keys to a guy whose own team just took them away, but Baltimore doesn’t have the luxury of being picky right now.
Brissett isn’t even eligible to play yet. Fagnano gets the start Thursday night against Jacksonville, his second career appearance, with that 36-10 loss as his only game tape. Brissett has eleven days to learn an offense before a likely first start Monday night, Nov. 16, against the Chargers. The other two names on Baltimore’s QB depth chart, Kedon Slovis and Austin Reed, have combined for zero NFL starts.
None of this is happening with time to spare. Baltimore is 4-4, in last place in the AFC North, on a three-game losing streak and sitting 10th in the conference playoff picture, a game back of the final wild-card spot, behind a Steelers team at 6-2, a Bengals team at 5-2 and a Browns team at 5-3.
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A trade announcement is supposed to read like stability. This one reads like a front office that ran out of other options and is hoping nobody pulls up Brissett’s last depth chart.
He has actually played quarterback in the NFL this season, which already puts him ahead of two of the other three names in that room. That’s not nothing.
It’s also not a plan. Fagnano starts Thursday against a Jaguars defense with a 36-10 loss as his resume. Brissett gets his eleven days, then his shot against the Chargers on Nov. 16. By the time he takes that first snap, Baltimore will already have its answer on whether this season is still alive.
