Cardinals open training camp Wednesday as arguably NFL's most depressing team
The Arizona Cardinals will report to training camp on Wednesday, and this annual rite of summer signals the first step toward a looming NFL season. For the 2026 Cardinals, it signals pain.
There will be a lot of it for this club and its fans in the coming season.
We know this.
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Most club observers believe this. Soon, when the team is actually asked to perform, the entire NFL will understand this.
The Cardinals are poised to embark on perhaps one of their worst seasons — and that's saying a lot because, only last season, they suffered through a 3-14 campaign.
So, the season ahead has the potential to make 2025 feel like the good old days.
But why all the doom and gloom? The Cardinals, after all, have a new head coach in 39-year-old Mike LaFleur and he comes from a football family that includes older brother and Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur. He also worked under coach Sean McVay as the Los Angeles Rams offensive coordinator the past three seasons and last year that team led the league in yards and points.
The problem for LaFleur and the Cardinals is McVay's team plays in the same division. And the Rams, in the NFC Championship game last season, had a great offseason and could have the NFL's best roster.
The Rams lost to the Seattle Seahawks in that conference title game last January. Then the Seahawks blew out the New England Patriots to win the Super Bowl.
And, yes, the Seahawks will also play (beat?) the Cardinals twice this season because they play in the same NFC West.
The remaining division opponent for the Cardinals is the San Francisco 49ers. Like the Seahawks and the Rams, the 49ers also made the playoffs last season after winning almost as many games (12) as the Cardinals lost (13).
This division is brutal. The Rams have defending NFL MVP Matthew Stafford at quarterback. The Seahawks have Sam Darnold fresh off leading his team to the Super Bowl title. And the 49ers also have a Super Bowl quarterback in Brock Purdy.
The Cardinals match up with ... Jacoby Brissett.
Brissett has made himself a tidy NFL career the past 10 seasons. But he's a well-suited backup option in a league reliant on talented starters.
Brissett started 12 games for the Cardinals last year because injuries sidelined starter Kyler Murray. The Cardinals had a 1-11 record in the games Brissett started.
The Cardinals did precious little to upgrade their quarterback room this year. They signed plucky Gardner Minshew to play for his fifth team in five years. And they selected Carson Beck out of the University of Miami in the third round of the draft.
So the Cards are likely to shuffle the starts among their quarterbacks because they'll want to see what Beck can do. Minshew has been around the entire offseason, and Brissett has the most experience of the bunch.
Did we mention Brissett is kind of peeved at the team?
He has missed the entire voluntary part of the offseason program — the one in which LaFleur introduced the new offense to the players who were present – because he's dissatisfied with his contract.
Brissett, 33, wants a raise from the $4.88 million he's due to earn this season because when he signed his contract last season it was with the understanding he'd be the backup rather than the starter.
Brissett's interactions with the team this offseason have mostly limited to acting as his own agent and trying to get a raise rather than, you know, learning the new offense, working on winning the starting job and playing well.
The Cardinals acknowledge Brissett would be underpaid as a starter, but haven't so far offered the quarterback enough to compel him to sign an adjusted deal.
That means the biggest drama surrounding Brissett on Wednesday is whether he'll report to camp on time or hold out. Perhaps he'll report and decline to work in what has become popular among some players as a so-called hold-in.
The Cardinals also aren't certain about starting guard Isaiah Adams, who was arrested over the weekend in his native Canada on gun charges. He's charged with possessing a firearm obtained by crime, possessing a firearm without a permit and possessing a prohibited device.
The gun, by the way, was an Uzi-style weapon.
Most teams depend on winning games for their drama and entertainment.
Arizona's greatest hope for 2026 could be tied to being bad enough to get the first pick in the 2027 draft.
Such is your life, Cardinals fans.