Brendan Sorsby a gamble the Cardinals should just avoid

The Arizona Cardinals’ quarterback situation somehow added another layer on Monday night.

Not because Jacoby Brissett got a new contract or the team named a QB1 ahead of training camp. It was because of Brendan Sorsby, a player not even on the Cardinals’ roster, and his decision to apply for the NFL Supplemental Draft after a legal back-and-forth with the NCAA over his gambling on college and pro sports.

No longer fighting for his eligibility after it was discovered Sorsby placed at least $90,000 across thousands of bets in college, the Texas Tech prospect instantly becomes a player to watch for quarterback-needy teams like the Cardinals if his application is accepted.

As ESPN’s Benjamin Solak pointed out Monday night, Arizona is “the most obvious choice” as one of eight teams that should be interested in the quarterback.

It’s not hard to see why.

Sorsby was already viewed as a first-rounder in a weak 2026 class — ahead of Cardinals rookie Carson Beck — before announcing his plans to attend Texas Tech. Sorsby was shaping up to be among the top quarterback prospects in 2027, with ESPN’s Matt Miller ranking him as the third-best QB prospect this upcoming year behind only Arch Manning and Dante Moore.

At 6-foot-3 and 235 pounds, the quarterback has good size for the position and is coming off a 2025 in which he completed 61.6% of his passes for 2,800 yards and 27 touchdowns to five interceptions for Cincinnati. He led the Big 12 in passer rating (155.1).

Now, a team can potentially get a first-round arm at a discount through the supplemental draft.

Unlike the NFL Draft, teams are separated between three categories (teams with six wins or less, non-playoff teams and playoff teams) and randomly ordered before bidding on a respective prospect with picks. The highest bid (pick) gets the player. Whatever pick was used by the franchise is then lost for 2027.

A franchise shelling out a first-round pick seems highly unlikely and hasn’t happened since 1992. But offering up a fourth- or even fifth-round pick could be all it takes to land Sorsby’s services. That’s a price just about any team would pay for a potential franchise quarterback.

But should the Cardinals really take that gamble on Sorsby?

Sure, bringing Sorsby in would make for an even more interesting training camp in Arizona. The quarterback competition that first-year head coach Mike LaFleur said has already been ramped up will get another arm thrown into the mix.

Bringing him aboard could also potentially speed up the timeline in Arizona’s search for its next franchise quarterback, with Sorsby and third-round pick Carson Beck competing for the role.

Even then, it feels like too slippery a slope for the Cardinals to traverse.

For one, gambling while playing is a serious offense — even if many view sports betting as a much lesser evil now with sportsbooks easily downloaded and perused. And that’s before the added element of Sorsby betting on his own team, which he did at least 40 times as a member of the Indiana Hoosiers in 2022.

While undergoing gambling rehabilitation can certainly help, the thought of “what if” is going to remain for many.

Every bad game, every bad pass, every decision, the thought of “did he bet?” is going to loom. Warranted or not, it’s the unfortunate price of going down that road.

And if for some reason he did go back down that path, that’s a whole other can of worms this franchise would have to deal with. Not worth the risk.

There’s the simple fact of whether the league will even allow Sorsby into the supplemental draft this year, too. It could very well say “see you in 2027” when there’s more of an arm’s length between Sorsby and all the gambling talk.

There’s also the possibility that Sorsby does find his way into the league through the supplemental draft, albeit with a suspension attached similar to what we saw in 2011 with Terrelle Pryor and the Oakland Raiders. That was a different situation, with Pryor set to serve a five-game suspension in college due to trading tattoos for Ohio State memorabilia, but one that could be an example of what awaits Sorsby.

That seems like an absolute headache first-year head coach Mike LaFleur doesn’t need as he figures out his own role.

While Sorsby has the talent to be a starting-caliber talent, he shouldn’t be someone the Cardinals bring aboard. There are plenty of other things for this franchise to worry about.

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