Down to undrafted rookie Joe Fagnano as their Week 9 starting quarterback, the injury-riddled Ravens will land an established option before the trade deadline. They are finalizing a deal to acquire Jacoby Brissett from the Cardinals, Adam Schefter and Ian Rapoport of ESPN report.
The two teams are expected to complete the trade after Baltimore’s Thursday night matchup against the Jaguars, per Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer, potentially as early as Friday. The Ravens’ roster needs heading into the game are likely the explanation for the delay.
Dot connecting here proved key after the Cardinals benched Brissett. Arizona demoted its two-year starter to the third-string level Monday, doing so as it elevated Gardner Minshew to the starting role and third-round rookie Carson Beck to the backup spot. The Ravens spent the same day scrambling at quarterback, with Lamar Jackson and Tyler Huntley out. Jackson is on IR, and Huntley’s turf toe injury will end his season. Baltimore will act quickly and bring Brissett back to the AFC North.
The Ravens’ quarterbacks coach, Israel Woolfork, was in place as Cardinals QBs coach from 2023-25 under Drew Petzing. Woolfork and Brissett will reunite in Baltimore under emergency circumstances. Brissett, 33, will join a seventh NFL team and likely will be asked to once again move into an extended starting role on short notice. That has been a specialty of the 11th-year veteran.
Back in 2017, the Colts acquired Brissett from the Patriots just before the season. Brissett did not start in Week 1 but replaced Scott Tolzien in the Colts’ opener and started the rest of the season in place of an injured Andrew Luck. The then-Indianapolis franchise cornerstone returned and played throughout the 2018 season but wrecked the AFC South team’s long-term plans by announcing a shocking retirement in August 2019. Brissett moved back into a starting role with Indy that year.
After a one-year stop with the Dolphins in 2021, Brissett needed to make another lengthy run in a QB1 role once the NFL handed Browns trade acquisition Deshaun Watson an 11-game suspension under the personal conduct policy. Woolfork was starting his NFL coaching career (via a Bill Walsh fellowship) during Brissett’s Cleveland stop, and he reunited with the nomadic passer once the Cardinals signed him in 2025. Arizona scrapped its Petzing plan on offense upon firing Jonathan Gannon after last season, but Brissett and Woolfork will work together a third time once this trade is completed.
The Cardinals had Brissett on a two-year, $12.5MM deal but agreed to a raise this summer. Arizona had Minshew tied to more guaranteed money for 2026 (via a one-year, $5.75MM deal) than its starter, so the sides hammered out a one-year, $15.5MM agreement that came fully guaranteed. Brissett’s revised deal carries a $9.7MM base salary. The Ravens will owe around $5MM in prorated salary, unless the Cards take on any portion of the compensation to facilitate a trade.
The Ravens will start Joe Fagnano on Thursday night with Austin Reed serving as his backup and Kedon Slovis as the emergency No. 3 quarterback. But Fagnano, an undrafted rookie out of UConn, seems unlikely to keep his team’s playoff hopes alive as it waits for an updated Jackson return timeline. Brissett could start as soon as Baltimore’s Week 10 matchup with the Chargers, giving him more than a week to get acclimated to Declan Doyle’s offense.
A loss to the Jaguars would move the Ravens to 4-5, keeping them at the bottom of the AFC North. The winless Chargers are obviously beatable, and Baltimore’s next two opponents, the Panthers and the Texans, have been up-and-down this year.
There is a path for Brissett to pick up a few wins before a late-season return from Jackson that carries the team into the playoffs. But this Ravens team had clear problems even when Jackson was on the field with an offensive line and a secondary that were both far too leaky to start the season. Even if Brissett can stabilize the offense, he may not be able to elevate the unit high enough to overcome the Ravens’ struggling defense.
Nikhil Mehta and Connor Byrne contributed to this post.
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