Is Bidwill once gain destroying the morale of the locker room?
By Walter MitchellBack in 2022 when Michael Bidwill caved in and gave Kyler Murray his $230.5M bag, if you think the players in the Cardinals' locker room were going hip-hip-hooray, you are either naive or completely ignorant of how locker room trust and loyalty amongst the players is built.
Fast forward to today.
The exact opposite appears to be happening.
The players in the Cardinals' locker room have complete belief and trust in Jacoby Brissett.
You heard what Jacoby's center, Hjalte Froholdt, said, correct?
"He's not just another backup. Jacoby has proven that he's a really good quarterback in this league, and he can get the job done. I'm excited to see what he's going to do this year."
“He’s a veteran, he knows his shit, he stands in the pocket, he takes a hit, he plays for the boys.”The fans are convinced all Jacoby can ever be is a backup.
Hjalte Froholdt strongly believes otherwise.
Yet, here we are on the first day of the 2026 NFL Draft saddled with this reality, which undoubtedly will be an awkward talking point during draft coverage of the Cardinals:
Sources: #AZCardinals QB Jacoby Brissett is not attending Phase 1 of the offseason program and is asking for an extension that pays him as the starter.
Brissett, set to make $9.06M in ‘26, has only $1.5M in guaranteed money and wants security. AZ appears willing to address it.
The problem for Bidwill is --- he always seems more desperate to listen to the fans more than he does to his own players.
The fans in turn are so desperate to get rid of Jacoby Brissett they were eager for Bidwill to pay Malik Willis (with all of hos 6 NFL starts) in excess of $30M a year.
After the Willis signing didn't come to fruition, the fans then petitioned for Jimmy Garoppolo --- and after that free agent contract didn't work out, they are now wanting Bidwill to make a 1st round trade in order to draft Ty Simpson, despite Simpson's relative inexperience.
We can get wrapped up in the debate about what Jacoby Brissett accomplished last season in a number of stellar ways with yet the fans' insistence that he was 1-11, mostly sucked and only played well in garbage time.
For me obviously, that debate is ridiculously moot.
But the point is --- if let say the Cardinals draft Ty Simpson --- and let's say that Mike LaFleur does what fans will be screaming for him to do in electing to start Ty from day one --- how do you think the Cardinals' players will react to having to start all over again this time with a rookie QB?
You know, even Marvin Harrison Jr. is excited to have Jacoby as his QB this year. He believes that Jacoby will unlock him the way he unlocked Michael Wilson.
Does that make any difference to team ownership?
Therefore, will Michael Bidwill, per usual, listen more to the fans than to his own players?
The offense last season, thanks to Jacoby and all of the tenacious teammates he galvanized never quit.
Yet now, is the team owner now quitting on them?
I agree 100%. Some fans who most likely have never played QB at any level can't see the truth about Jacoby. I have always thought that if you swapped Sam Darnold with Jacoby last season, Darnold wins one game on the Cardinals and Jacoby goes deep into the playoffs. Last season was about this team's defense sucking ass and a coaching staff that was mostly incompetent.
ReplyDeleteTy Simpson's ceiling is not as good as Jacobi Brissett is right now.
ReplyDeleteNothing says 'we've learned nothing' like tossing aside the guy your own locker room rallied around to chase a rookie with 0 NFL starts because Twitter demanded it. When your center is giving quarterback testimonials and the owner is scrolling fan polls instead, you've got your priorities exactly backwards. Bidwill truly has a gift for making the hard decisions — just always the wrong ones.