Carson Beck named Cardinals starter after Minshew UCL tear
TLDR: A torn UCL has put Gardner Minshew on IR, and Mike LaFleur has officially named rookie Carson Beck the Cardinals' starter for Sunday vs. the Rams, Arizona's 3rd starting quarterback in 3 weeks.
Monday was supposed to be a normal day-after in Arizona, picking through the film from Seattle. The first injury news to come out was about the receivers.
Sources: #AZCardinals WR Michael Wilson is out for the season after suffering a neck injury. Brutal.
Michael Wilson is done for the year with a neck injury. Then LaFleur explained when it happened, and it got worse: Wilson got hurt on the 4th play of the game and stayed out there for the rest of it.
"He played through it." Arizona Cardinals coach Mike LaFleur says Michael Wilson suffered a fracture in his neck on the 4th play but played through the entire game with the injury. Wilson was also playing with fractured ribs. t.co/OZYEazkyMS
A fractured neck and fractured ribs, and he kept running routes. That is a guy you want back, and LaFleur said Wednesday that the "prognosis is really good for the future" and Wilson will return next season. For 2026, though, Arizona just lost its top receiver, and Wilson wasn't even the biggest injury of the day.
Gardner Minshew got drilled by Dante Fowler on a strip-sack at the very end of the first half against the Seahawks. By Monday afternoon the Cardinals were running tests on his right arm. LaFleur called it a "possibility for sure" that he'd miss Sunday. About an hour later that turned into something a lot worse.
Cardinals QB Gardner Minshew is seeking additional medical opinions to confirm that he likely will need season-ending surgery on a torn UCL, sources tell @joshweinfuss and me. Minshew hurt it before halftime and somehow played the second half with the injury.
It's a torn UCL in his throwing elbow, and like Wilson, Minshew played the whole second half with it. The timing is brutal. Arizona had traded Jacoby Brissett to the Ravens just days earlier, so the only healthy quarterback left on the roster was a rookie who's never taken a regular-season snap. The ligament is a cruel bit of irony too: it's the same one Beck tore in his throwing elbow at Georgia, the injury that knocked him off his first-round track and sent him to Miami for a final college season.
The Cardinals still needed a body behind Beck, so they called the most well-traveled backup in football.
2008-2011: Buccaneers 2012: 49ers 2012: Sacramento Mountain Lions (UFL) 2012: Browns 2013: Bengals 2014: 49ers 2015: Bengals 2015: Colts 2015: Bills 2016: Ravens 2016: Giants 2017: Texans 2018: Raiders 2018: San Diego Fleet (AAF) 2018: Washington 2019: Lions 2020: Los Angeles Wildcats (XFL) 2020: 49ers 2021: Jets 2021: Ravens 2022: Broncos 2022: 49ers 2023-2024: Ravens 2025: Commanders 2026: Bengals 2026: Cardinals What a ride
Josh Johnson is 40, the Cardinals are his 15th NFL team, and that list also has the UFL, the AAF and the XFL on it. He's the emergency brake. On Tuesday, while the rest of the league was busy with the trade deadline, Arizona made it official and went and got a 3rd quarterback too.
There are some non-trade Cardinals moves today: - QB Gardner Minshew, WR Michael Wilson to IR. - Officially sign QB Josh Johnson and QB Joey Aguilar - Sign veteran WR Phillip Dorsett to PS
Joey Aguilar came off the Jaguars' practice squad and Phillip Dorsett came in to help a receiver room that's running on fumes. They also brought Cooper Rush and Trevor Siemian in for workouts the same day, so the front office was at least checking for a veteran safety net. Nobody signed, and the deadline came and went without another Cardinals trade.
That leaves Beck with a thin set of weapons. Wilson's gone, the receiver room is depleted, and the one established target left is a tight end, which Beck has seen before.
The Cardinals are decimated at WR. TE Trey McBride is Carson Beck's only established playmaker. Beck is no stranger to an offense built around an elite TE, Brock Bowers was the focal point at Georgia in 2023.
At Georgia, the offense ran through Brock Bowers. In Arizona it'll run through Trey McBride. Tight end Hunter Long also had his 21-day practice window opened on Wednesday, so Beck might get a little more help in a couple of weeks. Then, Wednesday afternoon, LaFleur made the call everyone saw coming.
Cardinals officially named rookie QB Carson Beck their starter for Sunday’s game vs. the Rams.
Beck was a 3rd-round pick in April, and the only time most fans have seen him in a Cardinals uniform is the Hall of Fame Game, where he went 15-of-19 for 188 yards and a touchdown. LaFleur said he's "ready to roll" and that the offense will "foundationally" look the same. When someone asked about the Rams' pass rush, he joked, "Who do they have?" They have Aaron Donald and Myles Garrett, by the way. His expectations for Sunday are about as simple as it gets.
LaFleur on what he expects from Carson Beck on Sunday. “I’ve got no expectations for him other than to take it one play at a time.”
One play at a time is the right thing to tell a rookie whose first NFL start is against the Rams. Brissett, then Minshew, and now Beck makes it 3 starters in 3 weeks, and this time the backup is a 40-year-old who got here Tuesday. What to watch Sunday is whether Beck gets the ball out fast and leans on McBride enough to stay upright. If he does, Arizona's lost season could turn into a real audition for the rookie.
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