Fresh off new deal, Cardinals’ Jacoby Brissett ready to prove his worth and catch some Zs

GLENDALE — Arizona Cardinals quarterback Jacoby Brissett called parts of his contract negotiations with the franchise “dark.”

For him, it was a stressful stretch trying to balance his own livelihood and the business side of the NFL while still wanting to be out there with his guys and not setting the offense back.

His admission of getting three hours of sleep through all the talks said all you needed to know.

Now, with all that out of the way and a new deal in place, Brissett’s attention turns to three things:

– Getting fully up to speed in the playbook
– Proving he’s the Week 1 starter
– Catching some Zs

Safe to say that last one is getting accomplished Sunday night. The other two? That’s going to take some time.

“I got a long way to go, but I’m willing to put the work in. After this night of sleep that I do get, I’ll go back to 3 hours of sleep for work purposes now,” Brissett said Sunday. “It’s training camp. We’re all learning this for the first time in this offense. I’m not naive to understand there’s still a lot of work to be done.

“I got to go out there and prove it,” Brissett added about being the expected starter. “I don’t think it’s a given just because the deal gets done. I think at the end of the day, no matter what money-wise, I think as the coach and as the people of the organization, they got to put the best person forward.”

 

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Despite Brissett’s own thinking, and the fact most of his team reps were Day 1 basic installs, he gave the offense a boost during the second open practice of training camp.

He wasn’t inserted into the first-team offense — that’ll begin on Tuesday when pads come on — but looked sharp working with mainly the third-team unit.

Brissett completed his first pass in team drills, a 21-yarder to wideout Tejhaun Palmer, before wrapping up the day with a couple of red-zone touchdowns to Xavier Weaver.

Even when Brissett wasn’t operating the offense, you could still feel a different vibe on the practice field. More smiles, more plays being made offensively and plenty of Kendrick Bourne crowd-pleasers.

“When Jacoby first came here, I got a chance to really get to know the person and that just told me everything I needed to know on what type of player he was going to be,” linebacker Mack Wilson Sr. said Sunday. “He’s been nothing but great since he stepped foot in that building. … I can’t wait to see how successful he’ll be this season.”

It was a stark difference from Arizona’s offensive showing on the first day of open practice, where the defense clearly won the day as quarterbacks Gardner Minshew II and Carson Beck struggled.

It makes you wonder if Cardinals general manager Monti Ossenfort was more willing to get a deal done after playing back the tape of the first few days of work.

Brissett wasn’t the only signal-caller to stand out, though.

Despite an early interception on Sunday, Minshew had his best day in camp so far, highlighted by some deep shots to Marvin Harrison Jr. and Michael Wilson.

Beck, meanwhile, continues to misfire as he works on syncing up the timing of his feet. The growing pains are there, though it appears he may have a favorite target brewing in Devin Duvernay. The two have linked up a lot this camp.

But even if Minshew keeps on his trajectory or Beck finds his bearings, all signs point to Brissett getting the rock come Week 1.

“The plan is to get this offense as good as we can be and peaking at the right time for him to be the starter on Sept. 13,” head coach Mike LaFleur said.

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