TEMPE, Ariz. – On a late October night in 2018, Andrew Luke drove home from a tragic Sunday afternoon. The Indianapolis Colts bounced back from a 42-34 loss to the New York Jets, dropping their record to 1-5. Chances are, the franchise quarterback may feel that the last thing a team leader needs to do is isolate himself.
The cell phone rang. It was Jacoby Brissett.
Brissett, the Colts’ backup quarterback, told Luke that he worked very hard. This team was great. He told him that he should call a team meeting for Luck. Luck was not in a good place, not in a place where he was ready to receive help. He couldn’t help but think. Who does this guy think he is?
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The phone call lasted 20 minutes. Locke later told his wife about Brissett’s idea. Nicole Locke said the group meeting seemed like a good idea. Chance met other team captains.
“By the third call, my whole demeanor and attitude changed,” Locke said. The athletics. “I’m like, ‘Oh my God, Jacoby is trying to help this team, he’s trying to help I. He’s testing me’ and he did it in a really digestible way.
Everywhere Brissett goes, the same sentiment is evident: There is no one better to be in the locker room. Entering his 11th NFL season, the 33-year-old Brissett has played for six teams, including two stints with the New England Patriots. This year, he is set to return to quarterback for the Arizona Cardinals, starting his fourth season as a starter. It was a fun trip.
Chance calls Brissett not only a great teammate, but an “elite.” Former NFL head coach Bill Parcells, who has known Brissett since he was a teenage quarterback, said Brissett has a unique ability to make an impact in the locker room. Other coaches and teammates, going back to Brissett’s college days at North Carolina State, have similar praise.
“He’s a leader anywhere,” said Parcells, a Hall of Fame coach and two-time Super Bowl champion. He has the ability to gather the people and has the ability to influence them positively. And he’s a team player with a passion for self-improvement. He transmits it, and soon people understand it well. He is an amazing young man.
In a recent interview, Brissett couldn’t figure out what makes a great leader. He simply tries to be the same person every day. He remembered the chance phone call. He knew how much he had to work to come back from a shoulder injury last season. The group felt the need to hear determination and drive in Luke’s voice. But most of all, he wanted him to know that luck had his back.
Luke said it’s not unusual for backup quarterbacks to make such suggestions. Earlier in his career in Indianapolis, he was fortunate to have Matt Hasselbeck and Drew Stanton in the bullpen. But this was different, Luke said. Hasselbeck and Stanton were older, wiser. When Brissett suggested the team meeting, he was three years younger than Chance, “and I think for a junior quarterback (that’s) rare,” Luke said. After the team meeting, the Colts won nine of 10 to advance to the playoffs. The team meeting wasn’t a big reason for the change, says Luke, but it was.
Andrew Luck hugs Jacoby Brissett after a January 2019 playoff game. Locke praised his backup’s willingness to challenge him during their time with the Indianapolis Colts. (Peter Aiken/Getty Images)
Former NFL coach Matt Canada saw similar traits in Brissett’s college days. Brissett began his career at Florida State before transferring to North Carolina State, where Canada was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. Due to NCAA transfer rules, Brissett was unable to play his first year. He could not travel with the team for road games. But that didn’t stop Brissett. He traveled on his own dime, borrowing a friend’s Ford Explorer to show off and support his friends.
Brissett led by example in the position department that season. Each week, Canada has quarterbacks perform their favorite plays. What do you want to run on third-and-3? How do you rate these calls? Even though Brissett was ineligible to play, he put them in.
“As a coach, you act like you’re out one game. You say that to the backups and all that stuff. And it’s a nice talk. But Jacoby wasn’t just in one game,” Canada said. There are no games Far away. He couldn’t play. I’m saying Jacoby lived. He acted as if he had started.”
Throughout his career, Brissett has always found ways to connect with teammates. Once he took over at North Carolina State, Brissett would get on the team bus and hand out personalized, handwritten notes to his teammates as he walked to his seat. When Luke’s backup was with the Colts, he rushed to celebrate with the Indianapolis defense whenever he forced a turnover. Photobomb when teammates shoot For cameras.
“He’s a team-first guy,” said former linebacker Anthony Walker, who played with Brist, Coles and the Cleveland Browns. “It was never about, ‘Man, I’m not going to play’ or anything. I just want the team to do well.” And when that happens, when you’re a selfish man, good things happen to you, don’t they?”
None of this was easy. In the year As a rookie in 2016, Brissett was one of two quarterbacks to fill in for Tom Brady, who was suspended after the Deflategate scandal. In Indianapolis, Luke replaced Luke after he suddenly retired. In Cleveland, the NFL stepped in after suspending Deshaun Watson for violating the league’s personal conduct policy. In Arizona, he replaced Kyler Murray, starting the final 12 games of the 2025 season.
This is where Parcel came in handy. Brissett has known Parcells since his high school coach introduced him as quarterback at William T. Dwyer High in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Since then, the two have bonded to the point that Brissett doesn’t consider Parcells a mentor — “he’s legit like my grandfather,” the quarterback said.
His conversations with a former NFL coach taught Brissett to “never shy away from an uncomfortable situation.” It’s easy for backup quarterbacks to try to find a spot that’s too easy to get on the field. Brissett pushed Parcells to look at it differently. This may not be the best situation, but it may be good for you. Brissett taught him to learn more about himself and try to see how far he could push himself.
Bill Parcells and Jacoby Brissett spoke in December 2017. The two were close for most of Brist’s life. “My grandfather is legit,” Brissett said of the NFL coaching legend. (Don Juan Moore/Getty Images)
“He’s got a good idea of what I think is important — not that I’m anybody, I’m nobody — but I’ve had a lot of experience in the business and now we should be friends,” Parcells said. The athletics About their relationship. “I’m very, very proud.”
Leadership aside, the biggest knock on Brissett is his record. As a beginner it is 20-45. After replacing Murray last season, he played well, averaging 280.5 passing yards per game, but the Cardinals went 1-11. At the first news conference of fall camp – later He signed an improved contract worth 15.5 million dollars It ended in a holdout – Brisset was asked if he had a message for the fans about the optics of the quarterback who went on a terrible record of asking for more money. Brist, who originally signed as a backup with Arizona, said he couldn’t care less — “The deal is done.
“Wins and losses are not a reflection of who I am,” Brissett said when asked about it at Arizona’s practice facility. “And (that’s) not just from me, but from my teammates.” I know my worth.”
Ron Rivera coached Brissett through the 2023 season with the Washington Chiefs. Rivera also interviewed for the Cardinals head coaching position shortly after the organization fired Jonathan Gannon. Rivera watched film of Arizona’s 2025 season before meeting with the Cardinals. If he gets the job, Rivera said he would feel comfortable with Brissett at QB1. He loved the feeling.
Sometimes, Rivera said, the issue isn’t the quarterback. While coaching the Carolina Panthers, Rivera observed several factors when the organization evaluated quarterbacks. How is the talent around him? Are you waiting for him? Will the defense give him short fields? Or should he go 75 yards each possession?
With Kyler Murray gone, Jacoby Brissett will start the season as the Cardinals’ top QB, starting on a new contract after being terminated. “I know my worth,” he says. (Norm Hall/Getty Images)
“You have to play a game, and the opponent knows you’re going to play a game,” Rivera said. So 1-11, you have to look at everybody, not just the quarterback.”
Despite his poor record, Brissett made his mark in Arizona. The quarterback is like a big brother, “someone we can go to about anything,” receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. said. After tight end Trey McBride Brissett made a big play, she screamed at the defense, especially with star safety Budda Baker, who practiced competitiveness.
With his contract set to expire after this season, Brissett could be the bridge quarterback at the position until the Cardinals figure out his future. He plans to make the most of it. Up to this point, his career has been a series of starts and stops, the life of a backup quarterback. As a starter under new coach Mike LaFleur, a decade into his career, he still feels he has something to prove.
“I’ve moved six times in the last six years, so I feel like I haven’t played as much football as people say,” Brissett said. “In a lot of these situations, I might have played two games here, three games here. It’s like I haven’t had opportunities like this. Whatever the case, I feel like I have a lot of football ahead of me.”