The Baltimore Ravens are in total quarterback freefall. Week 8 against Buffalo was an absolute nightmare: Lamar Jackson’s long-awaited return lasted just one snap before a severe thumb injury required surgery. Replacement Tyler “Snoop” Huntley stepped up, only to last 10 snaps before limping off. That left undrafted rookie Joe Fagnano thrown straight into the fire during a painful 36-10 blowout. As head coach Jesse Minter later admitted, Fagnano was completely underprepared, a reality underscored by back-to-back losses.

With Huntley done for the year and Jackson’s return unknown, Baltimore’s standard dropped from finding a reliable quarterback to simply finding a healthy one. The front office frantically added Kedon Slovis and former UFL standout Austin Reed. However, the true solution arrived via trade for Cardinals veteran Jacoby Brissett. But as reporter Aaron Wilson confirmed on X, Brissett’s arrival comes with immediate fallout: Baltimore’s brief experiment with Reed is already over.

“#Ravens waived Austin Reed and finalized Jacoby Brissett trade terms from #Cardinals,” Wilson wrote.

Brissett’s arrival gives the Ravens a more experienced veteran option compared to the inexperienced Fagnano and Reed, who, while capable, have zero regular-season NFL snaps. Despite being a part of the Chicago Bears’ practice squad since going undrafted in 2024, Reed spent the 2024 season on the Bears’ practice squad, later played for the Dallas Renegades, where he recorded 21 touchdowns for 1,923 yards across 10 games, and joined the Ravens in 2026.

After starting all 10 UFL games for the Renegades, Reed originally signed with the Ravens back in August 2026. He spent training camp and the preseason with Baltimore before being waived during final roster cuts on August 29, 2026. He later returned to the Ravens’ practice squad in November 2026 following injuries to Jackson and Huntley.

Meanwhile, Brissett has 11 years of experience in the league, playing 109 games across his stints with six different teams, most recently with the Arizona Cardinals. He recorded 86 touchdowns for 16485 yards and maintained an average completion rate of 62.1%.

This season alone, he started all eight games for Arizona, scoring 10 touchdowns for 1719 yards, averaging a 63.3% pass completion rate. The only reason he became available was that he was benched in favor of quarterback Gardner Minshew and relegated to third string.

Fortunately for Baltimore, Brissett isn’t walking into an unfamiliar setup. In fact, he already has a head start thanks to how seamlessly his skill set aligns with offensive coordinator Declan Doyle’s system.

As fantasy analyst Max Loeb pointed out, “Declan Doyle’s offense being so heavily dependent on slot pass production. They’re throwing there at the fourth-highest rate in the league. You know who was throwing there at the third-highest rate in the league before this trade? The Arizona Cardinals.”

That natural synergy is music to the ears of Zay Flowers. As the roster’s most dynamic playmaker, Flowers has thrived inside Doyle’s scheme, logging 126 slot routes, accounting for 44.1% of his overall snaps, according to Player Profiler. Pair that workload with Flowers leading all NFL wideouts with 320 yards after the catch (per Pro Football Focus), and Brissett finds himself surrounded by the exact weapons he excels at targeting.

It’s no secret that Brissett isn’t known for pushing the ball deep; his modest 3.2 completed air yards per attempt this season via Pro Football Reference would hamper most systems. But in an offense built around fast decisions and quick underneath targets, that limitation suddenly becomes a non-issue.

More than just sustaining Flowers’ production, Brissett’s arrival could spark a breakthrough for former first-round pick Rashod Bateman. Bateman’s path in Baltimore has been a rollercoaster, flashing brilliance with an 88-yard outing against the Saints in Week 2, only to fade into back-to-back single-catch games and manage just 61 total yards over a recent three-game stretch.

Unlocking Bateman’s potential is a challenge even Lamar Jackson struggled to solve. However, analyst Chris Cooper believes Brissett might hold the key.

If he can, it will be because Brissett “throws the deep out/comeback as good as anyone.” That’s according to analyst Chris Cooper, who believes Bateman “is going to LOVE Jacoby Brissett.”

As promising as that chemistry sounds, bringing Brissett to Baltimore came with an unavoidable financial reality check.

Considering the Ravens are already facing significant cap constraints due to top-heavy veteran contracts for players like Jackson, linebacker Roquan Smith, defensive tackle Nnamdi Madubuike, cornerback Marlon Humphrey, and pass rusher Trey Hendrickson, waiving Reed seemed to be a natural next move to accommodate Brissett’s contract.

The trade proved to be quite lucrative for the Baltimore team, since Arizona also provided them with a way to incorporate the veteran quarterback into their roster without further compromising the cap space they cleared this season by restructuring Lamar Jackson’s contract.

What Were the Terms of the Ravens’ Jacoby Brissett Trade With the Cardinals?

The Ravens received Brissett and a 2027 fifth-round draft pick from the Cardinals in exchange for two draft picks: a 2027 fourth-round and a 2028 seventh-round selection. According to NFL insider Ian Rapoport, the Cardinals also paid “a little more than half of Jacoby Brissett’s remaining 2026 salary to complete the trade.”

Brissett had signed a one-year, $15.5 million reworked contract with the Arizona Cardinals for the 2026 season, which included a $5.8 million signing bonus and a max value up to $21 million with incentives. But they restructured Brissett’s contract before his move to Baltimore, converting $2.7 million of his remaining $5.4 million salary into a signing bonus. 

So, the Ravens owe the veteran quarterback between $2.45 million and $2.7 million for the remainder of the season, depending on whether the trade was finalized before or after Thursday night.