Cardinals Camp Opens With a Real Quarterback Battle: Brissett Set to Take First-Team Reps

The Arizona Cardinals opened training camp this week with a new head coach, a rebuilt quarterback room, and — for the first time since 2018 — no Kyler Murray on the depth chart. Players reported to State Farm Stadium on July 22, making Arizona one of the first NFL teams on the field this summer, and by Sunday the biggest question in the desert had already shifted. Gardner Minshew took the first-team reps through the opening weekend, but Jacoby Brissett is set to move up with the starters on Tuesday, and Mike LaFleur's first real decision as a head coach is officially underway. If you want a snapshot of the week in Arizona Cardinals news, it's this: everything is a competition, and nobody is pretending otherwise.

The Quarterback Job Is Genuinely Open

Sunday's practice was the clearest look yet at how this is going to play out. Minshew, still running with the first team, had one of his better days — he dropped a deep ball on Michael Wilson that required a diving catch, hit Marvin Harrison Jr. on a touchdown slot fade, and added a red-zone score to Wilson. Brissett, in his first 11-on-11 work since returning to the team, opened with a 21-yard completion to Tejhaun Palmer and later threw two touchdowns to reserves, including a 55-yard strike to Harrison Wallace III. Not bad for a guy who admitted afterward, "My head is still all over the place right now," noting the play calls were essentially day-one installs.

The rotation flips Tuesday: Brissett moves to the first team, Minshew slides to the backup reps, and the staff gets a true side-by-side comparison in the first padded practice. Behind them, Carson Beck struggled again on Sunday — a continuing theme early in camp — and Kedon Slovis remains the fourth arm in the room. LaFleur has kept the temperature low, praising the group's communication and calling all four quarterbacks "studs as humans." That's coach-speak, sure, but the structure of the competition is real, and it's moving fast.

There's a business angle here too. Brissett practiced despite an unresolved contract situation, with reporting out of camp suggesting a reworked deal north of $10 million could be close. Arizona clearly wants him in this fight, not just holding a clipboard.

PUP List News: Four Down, One Already Back

The Cardinals placed four players on the physically unable to perform list on July 23, though the tone from the building was notably calm about all of them:

• Paris Johnson Jr., LT (knee) — LaFleur called it "honestly nothing," essentially maintenance, and Johnson was activated off the list by the third day of camp.
• Josh Sweat, OLB (knee) — a lingering issue dating to his college days; LaFleur said Sweat is "in great spirits" and looks good.
• Garrett Williams, CB (Achilles) — still working back from the tear he suffered December 21; the team believes he could be ready around Week 1.
• Tip Reiman, TE (ankle) — expected back during camp.

The team's stated expectation is that all four return during camp, and that none of them misses the start of the regular season. For a roster that spent last December watching its best young corner tear an Achilles, that qualifies as a good injury report.

The healthier news mattered just as much. James Conner and Trey Benson both practiced fully after injury-marred offseasons, and 2025 first-rounder Walter Nolen III — cleared after meniscus surgery — got his first 11-on-11 work on Sunday. The one wobble: Marvin Harrison Jr. didn't finish Sunday's practice, and the team hasn't said why. Nothing official suggests it's serious, but it's worth tracking this week.

A New Offense and a Crowded Backfield

LaFleur spent the spring installing an offense built on more formations and motion with a deliberately simplified playbook, and camp is where it starts getting graded. The most interesting wrinkle is how the staff is casting the receivers: Wilson has been assigned a Puka Nacua-style do-everything role, while Harrison slots into the Davante Adams role as the isolated matchup winner. Trey McBride remains the offense's most reliable piece — even Budda Baker's diving pass breakup on him Sunday was a reminder of how often those two make each other better in practice.

The backfield is the roster's most fascinating logjam. Arizona took Notre Dame's Jeremiyah Love with the No. 3 overall pick, and the internal expectation is that he becomes the lead back sooner rather than later. But Conner is healthy, Benson is a full participant, and Tyler Allgeier got significant work with the offense in the spring. That's four backs with legitimate cases for touches, and the staff has pointedly declined to name a starter through the first three practices. It wouldn't shock anyone if a trade eventually thins the group before September — there simply aren't enough carries to go around, and Love wasn't drafted third overall to watch.

How Arizona Got Here: The 3-14 Reset

Context matters for all of this. The 2025 season collapsed into a 3-14 finish that included nine straight losses to close the year, and it cost Jonathan Gannon his job after a 15-36 run across three seasons. Murray's season ended with a foot injury in Week 5, and by March the divorce was complete — the Cardinals released him on March 11 with a post-June 1 designation, spreading roughly $55 million in dead money across two caps. He leaves as the franchise's third-leading passer with 20,460 yards, and the Vikings have been the most frequently floated landing spot.

What survived the teardown is more interesting than the teardown itself. Nick Rallis stayed on as defensive coordinator, and the secondary quietly looks like a strength: Will Johnson has taken over as the top corner, Denzel Burke is the favorite at the other outside spot, and Sean Murphy-Bunting has moved inside to the slot. When Garrett Williams returns, Rallis will have real options in both base and nickel. Chad Ryland also won the kicker competition outright — one less thing to argue about in August.

What's Next on the Cardinals' Calendar

This is where being an early-camp team pays off — and costs you. Because Arizona plays in the Hall of Fame Game against the Panthers in Canton on August 6, everything is compressed:

• Tuesday, July 28: first padded practice, open to fans, with Brissett running the first team
• August 2: season-ticket-member practice during the league's Back Together Weekend
• August 6: Hall of Fame Game vs. Carolina in Canton, Ohio — the first preseason snaps in the NFL
• August 9: Red & White practice at State Farm Stadium
• Later in August: joint practices with the Packers, preseason trips including Las Vegas, and a home date with Dallas

Then comes the season opener against the Chargers, which suddenly doesn't feel that far away. Five of the seven open practices kick off at 4 p.m. — a scheduling tweak LaFleur made himself — and admission and parking are free, so State Farm Stadium should be loud all week.

Add it up and this was a genuinely eventful first week of Arizona Cardinals training camp: a quarterback competition with an actual schedule attached to it, a PUP list that's already shrinking, and a top-three pick waiting to take over the backfield. LaFleur keeps saying the work starts now, and with the earliest preseason game in football just ten days out, he's right. Check back next week — by then, the Cardinals may have told us who their quarterback is, whether they meant to or not.