When he first arrived in Tempe as coach of the Cardinals, Mike LaFleur was asked what qualities he liked in a quarterback for his scheme, and he noted both the ability to stand in the pocket and toughness.
To have LaFleur specifically credit incumbent starter Jacoby Brissett – and new backup Gardner Minshew II — for those traits was not a surprise.
“I’ve always felt that both, in their own way, would be good fits in this system,” LaFleur said Monday morning during the NFL annual meeting at the Arizona Biltmore.
The quarterback situation has been and will be the topic of conversation around LaFleur’s first season. He understands that. The team has moved on from Kyler Murray – “We wish him the best,” LaFleur said on that topic, “but sometimes it’s time for a change on both sides” – and now heads into 2026 with Brissett, Minshew and an eye to the future.
“We had discussions (about keeping Murray) and we’ll keep it at that,” LaFleur said. “You name it, we were talking about it. The quarterback position is the most important position in all of sports. We know that. There were lengthy conversations in so many different aspects of it and there will continue to be until we know we have the most perfect room possible.”
That can be the draft, of course. The quarterback crop is universally thought of being a step below others. The consensus second QB in the draft class after Fernando Mendoza, who will go first to the Raiders, is Alabama’s Ty Simpson.
Simpson is expected to go mid-to-late first round, behind where the Cardinals pick at 3 and perhaps earlier than would be available either at the second-round spot of 34 in Round 2 for Arizona or even if they wanted to trade back into the first round.
LaFleur wasn’t getting too specific on Simpson when asked about him on Monday, noting that they got 18 minutes to meet at the Scouting Combine when to truly know about a quarterback you need “18 hours, 18 days in a row.”