Voltar
When Lamar Jackson suffered yet another injury during the Baltimore Ravens’ Week 8 loss, it was just about the worst news imaginable. Shortly after, his replacement, Tyler Huntley, suffered an injury of his own, forcing him to leave the game. That left undrafted rookie Joe Fagnano as the only quarterback available, and to no surprise, the Ravens finished with a season-low 144 yards of offense.
The Ravens have since learned that both Jackson and Huntley are out for the rest of the season, which means Fagnano is in line to start nine games this season for a 4-4 Baltimore team that now faces a short week with their next matchup on Thursday. That is, unless the Ravens make a trade, which they just executed.
It’s clear the Ravens needed to do something at the QB position after seeing the top two players on their depth chart wiped away due to injury. The front office has since responded by signing 25-year-old Kedon Slovis off the Green Bay Packers’ practice squad on Tuesday. But he’s thrown just two passes in his NFL career. The Ravens needed to do more. After working out several quarterbacks this week, the Ravens brought 26-year-old Austin Reed back to the practice squad, but he’s never thrown an NFL pass.
Now, the Ravens have traded for a new starting quarterback, one with a lot more experience than everyone on the roster combined.
According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the Ravens have agreed to trade for Jacoby Brissett from the Arizona Cardinals. The 33-year-old QB started all eight games for the Cardinals this season, leading them to a 3-5 record. Though, that last win was actually achieved by Gardner Minshew III, who was named the Cardinals’ starting QB earlier this week, with Brissett actually falling to third on the depth chart, behind rookie Carson Beck.
But now Brissett gets a fresh start and a chance to immediately get back in a starting lineup, and there’s even already some familiarity with the Ravens’ QB coach Israel Woolfork, who coached him in Arizona last year. Meanwhile, Brissett has now been traded for the second time in his career, and he’ll be suiting up for his seventh team.
Though, this trade isn’t being executed right away. It will actually go through this weekend, which is after the Ravens’ Week 9 game on Thursday night against the Jacksonville Jaguars, where Fagnano will be the starting QB.
Brissett is in his 11th NFL season, and he’s generally done a great job of taking care of the football. In fact, before the season kicked off, Brissett held the NFL record for the lowest interception rate of all time. Though after tossing seven picks in eight games, that record now belongs to Aaron Rodgers.
While it became clear that Brissett was no longer wanted on a rebuilding Arizona team, he’ll get a chance to start for the Ravens in Week 10 against the Los Angeles Chargers, which will be played on a Monday night.
Brissett has completed 63.3% of his passes for 1,719 yards, 10 touchdowns, and seven interceptions this season. He’s never thrown more than eight interceptions in a single season, but chances are he’ll push past that mark in Baltimore later this year.