Cardinals Eat $2.7 Million to Ship Jacoby Brissett to the Ravens

NFL teams will move heaven, earth, and millions of dollars in accounting tricks just to secure a backup quarterback who recently got benched for Gardner Minshew.

The Arizona Cardinals are officially trading Jacoby Brissett to the Baltimore Ravens, but not before doing some last-minute financial gymnastics. According to Field Yates, Arizona restructured Brissett's deal, converting $2.7 million of his remaining $5.4 million salary into a signing bonus to make the math work for Baltimore.

"Field Yates reported the Ravens will owe Brissett $2.7M if the deal is completed prior to their game, or $2.43M if completed after."

If the deal goes through before the Ravens kick off tonight, Baltimore owes him a base salary of $2.7 million. If the paperwork clears after kickoff, that number drops to $2.43 million. That is a $270,000 difference based entirely on whether a fax machine jams in the next few hours.

For Arizona, this is a clean break from an experiment that flatlined. Brissett was sitting on a brutal 5-17 career record in a Cardinals uniform and just lost his starting job. After going 10-for-23 with 119 yards and an interception against the Dallas Cowboys last week, he was pulled for Minshew, who promptly engineered a 33-30 overtime comeback win.

For the 4-4 Ravens, this is a pure desperation depth move. With Lamar Jackson battling a lingering ankle issue that has kept him off the practice field in recent weeks, Baltimore needs an insurance policy. You do not restructure contracts and rush a trade on a Thursday unless you are terrified of your current depth chart.

Bettors looking at tonight's Ravens matchup against the Jacksonville Jaguars should probably hold their breath on how this impacts the live lines. If Brissett is suddenly holding a clipboard on the sideline, it means Baltimore is bracing for the worst under center.

The Ravens get their emergency parachute, and the 3-5 Cardinals get to fully hand the keys to Minshew before their Sunday clash with the Seattle Seahawks. We will see if Baltimore's front office can hit send on the trade paperwork before kickoff to lock in that extra quarter-million.