Brissett and Wilson were rarely given easy completions, yet they balled big-time, here's proof

 

                                                                                 photo credit: FOX Sports

By Walter Mitchell

Fans keep insisting that Jacoby Brissett only accomplished his impressive 2025 production numbers because teams were playing soft prevent-style defenses that led to easy stat-padding completions. 

Here's a rebuttal to a similar claim that I tweeted today:

Walter B J Mitchell

@WBJMItch

If you go back and watch the games --- I promise you will be hard pressed to find any semblances of prevent defenses.

Michael Wilson was dogged in man coverage game after game. As was Marv, when available. As was Trey, except they couldn't cover him with safeties and linebackers as much as they tried.

If the prevent defense claims are true, why then was Jacoby's most productive quarter the 3rd when he was furiously trying to mount comebacks?

Like he did to take a 20-16 lead over the Rams late in the 3rd quarter in Week 18.

The 4th quarter was not Jacoby's most productive. Only 880 of his 3,336 yards came when the games were fully out of reach and even then, DCs did everything they could to sack Jacoby and not give him easy completions.

Just ask DeMeco Ryans. With a 20-point lead he kept Stingley and Lassiter in sticky man coverage the entire game. And even so, Michael Wilson managed to beat Stingley on a closely covered 3rd down dig-route conversion and then beat Lassiter on a perfectly thrown back shoulder at the left pylon with the Texans' fierce pass rush in Jacoby's face.

Jacoby's NFL record 47 of 57 passes came against Robert Saleh's defense. If anyone thinks that Robert Saleh just sat back and played prevent in that game, they do not know anything about Robert Saleh. Saleh and Shanahan were so pissed at what Jacoby was doing to their defense that on the 49ers last TD to go up 41-16 with 3:44 left they went for a 2-point conversion to try to rub it in and send a message.

Great thing was, Jacoby answered with an 8-play 66-yard drive that culminated in a brilliant 17-yard TD pass from Jacoby to Greg Dortch --- the drive which clinched an NFL record that no DC or HC ever would have wanted to give up.

Recommended Viewing:

Here is a video of every one of Michael Wilson's targets during his breakout season. Please watch it. You will see how difficult the defenses tried to make it for Wilson and Jacoby Brissett. So little of his production came easily. Teams were dogging him in man coverage and doubling and tripling him as often as they could.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fq0nBgT59Q0

Stunning Proof of the Degree of Difficult for Wilson and Brissett:

The 10 best pass-catchers in contested situations from the 2025 NFL season

The 10 best pass-catchers in contested situations from the 2025 NFL season (pff.com)

1. WR Puka Nacua, Los Angeles Rams

Our top spot unsurprisingly goes to Puka Nacua. The 24-year-old was truly one-of-one in contested circumstances this season, amassing 30 total contested catches for 510 yards — both of which are PFF single-season records.

Nacua’s 2025 campaign included a trip to Arizona, where five of his seven receptions came in traffic. He caught four apiece on two other occasions and tallied eight contested catches across his three games facing the Seattle Seahawks. 

While Nacua did lead the league in contested targets, this success isn’t just a result of sheer volume. Nacua won the ball on 63.8% of his contested targets, which was the second-highest rate of the top 18 receivers in contested targets. Additionally, four of Nacua’s 12 touchdowns came on contested catches. This number probably would’ve been even higher if the Rams didn’t also have goal-line-fade savant Davante Adams at their disposal.

Nacua’s blinding success in traffic is just another reason why his 2025 season may be the very best PFF has ever documented. It’s ultimately a testament to the quality Nacua exudes in his own right. 

He may be catching passes from one of the best quarterbacks in the league, on routes drawn up by one of the premier offensive coaches in the league. But when Nacua is tasked with winning in his own regard, he does just that. Nacua’s historic 2025 campaign could be referenced for a long time as the standard bearer of great receiving years.

---

2. WR Michael Wilson, Arizona Cardinals

Michael Wilson has an opposite build to Washington, and one much more adept to making plays in congested areas. Wilson used his lengthy 6-foot-2 frame to haul in 22 contested catches this season, tied with Pickens for the second-most in the league.

However, Wilson did so on five fewer targets. Throwing the ball up to Wilson feels much more like a 65-35 chance than a 50-50 proposition. The numbers back that up — Wilson hauled in 64.7% of his contested targets.

While Washington’s win rate was marginally higher, Wilson racked up 50 additional yards on his contested plays. When Wilson was hot, he was simply unguardable. For instance, during his 15-reception game against the 49ers, Wilson nabbed five total catches in traffic.

3. WR Parker Washington, Jacksonville Jaguars

4. WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Seattle Seahawks

5. WR George Pickens, Dallas Cowboys

6. WR A.J. Brown, Philadelphia Eagles

.7. WR DeAndre Hopkins, Baltimore Ravens

8. WR Stefon Diggs, New England Patriots

9. TE George Kittle, San Francisco 49ers

10. TE Sam LaPorta, Detroit Lions

Commentary:

It's extremely difficult to comprehend how any NFL fan, let alone any Arizona Cardinals' fan could watch this video and read this article without being supremely impressed with Jacoby Brissett and Michael Wilson. 

The WR and his QB balled their tails off and played with tremendous courage, timing and, more often than not, with uncanny precision. 

This video proves why Jacoby Brissett's teammates love him and why Michael Wilson is not the "WR3 at best on any other team" that a host of Cardinals' fans were insisting, before Wilson was paired with Brissett.

#7 and #14 both deserve the chance to build on their 2025 chemistry as does the entire team who believes in them.

"But wait, Jacoby is only a backup." Can you look Fro in the eyes and claim that?

Walter B J Mitchell

@WBJMItch

·

1h

Hjalte Froholdt and his teammates believe that Jacoby Brissett is not only a starter, but a great team player.

When was the last time you saw a backup QB under any circumstances produce top 10 offensive rankings over span of 12 starts?

How many backup QBs set an NFL record for completions in a game? Versus a Robert Saleh defense, no less?

How many backup QBs helped turn a largely underutilized WR who fans claimed would be a WR3 at best on any other team into a go-to 1,000-yard receiver.

Go and look at all of Michael Wilson's catches. The vast majority of them were on timing throws into tight windows from a QB under extreme pressure.

It's not just THAT Jacoby and Wilson shined it's HOW they accomplished all they did under the most unlikely and adverse of circumstances.

The "he only won 1 game" criticism of Jacoby Brissett is blatantly unfair --- because after taking the Colts and Packers down to the wire --- and having beaten the Cowboys --- he began to lose 4 of his 5 starters on the OL (at LT, LG, RG, RT) plus Marv (5 games) and Zay Jones (9 games) --- and the defense, which was far more healthy (with 8 starters playing 16+ games), over the last 9 games gave up 35.2 points per game.

Thus, the Rams' MVP QB Matthew Stafford who put up 30.1 points per game, tops in the NFL, would not have had a chance to win games under the circumstances that surrounded the 2025 Cardinals.