An actor Jacoby Brissett is not.
Yet it perhaps made sense that the veteran quarterback landed with the Cardinals in free agency, officially signing a two-year contract on Friday. He has been featured on a national spot for a company that shall not be named here, with his backup QB skills highlighted in a normal life situation.
Brissett is one of four backup QBs to take part. He becomes the third to have played in Arizona. The other two? Colt McCoy and Joshua Dobbs.
"I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing," Brissett said with a chuckle.
"It was pretty cool. Definitely a little bit out of my comfort zone doing commercials. It was a good experience. Probably the last one I'll ever do."
Brissett wants to stick with quarterbacking, and the Cardinals can use that – and they know Brissett can work, after he started 11 games for a season in Cleveland with Cardinals offensive coordinator Drew Petzing and Cardinals quarterbacks coach Israel Woolfork on staff. (He was also on the Colts for three seasons when Jonathan Gannon was on staff, and Monti Ossenfort was the Patriots director of college scouting when New England drafted Brissett in 2016.)
The Cardinals talked to him last season about potentially coming to Arizona, he said, but Brissett chose to go to back to New England for a chance to start until rookie Drake Maye was ready. Now, the Cardinals are the best spot for him.
Brissett is close with Woolfolk and Petzing, so much so that he and Woolfolk were chatting about golf just prior to free agency and Brissett – technically still under contract – asked what the Cardinals might do at the position. Woolfolk immediately shut the conversation down.
Once free agency opened, Brissett, who serves as his own agent, wasn't allowed to talk to his buddies until the deal got done with Arizona's front office.
"I've wanted to be back with Drew, back with Israel," Brissett said.
"If I can go to work with the people I go to work with every day and enjoy the work, then the football stuff will take care of itself."
While on the sideline this past season when the Patriots visited the Cardinals, Brissett said he tried to guess along with Petzing's play-calling, knowing his likes and dislikes. Brissett only got a couple correct.
Over his decade in the game and 1,761 pass attempts, Brissett has 11,400 yards, 53 touchdown passes and only 24 interceptions. His 1.4 interception percentage is the lowest in NFL history. His 53 starts gives the Cardinals plenty of experience if Kyler Murray were to go down.
Brissett first has to beat out Clayton Tune for the backup job, something that Desmond Ridder could not do last offseason. Once the season starts, Brissett said he has to "figure out as we go" how he could best help Murray in season.
"In that room you want allies," Brissett said. "Guys that have your back no matter what."
The one never-been-a-Cardinals QB in the aforementioned series of commercials? Texans backup Case Keenum. No word if he might be someone the Cardinals would be interested sometime in the future.
Brissett is the right guy for the moment to be in a backup role.
"(You need) patience, always staying ready, being a good teammate," Brissett said. "In my career, things can change in one day, 10 days. You just never know."
