Jacoby Brissett Heads to Washington on 1-Year Deal

After an impressive enough campaign as the Browns’ interim starter during the Deshaun Watson suspension in 2022, Jacoby Brissett signed with the Washington Commanders in free agency Wednesday, signing a one-year deal worth a reported $10 million, with $8 million in guarantees.

The Commanders will be Brissett’s fifth team in eight years, following stints in New England (2016), Indianapolis (2017-2020), Miami (2021) and Cleveland (2022). He’s starting 10-plus games in a season three times, in 2017, 2019 and 2022, setting a career high in completion percentage (64.0%) and passer rating (88.9) last year.

In Washington, he’ll likely compete for the starting job alongside 2022 fifth-rounder Sam Howell, who started Week 18 of the 2022 season and was described as the team’s likely starter entering training camp. Howell is obviously a huge wild card, though, so the team deemed it necessary to add a veteran backup/potential starter in case a Howell move doesn’t work out, either in the preseason or during the regular season. That’s the perfect role for Brissett, who is 30 now and won’t be any team’s future or a star, but can be relied on to provide competent quarterbacking in a pinch.

This move also doesn’t preclude Washington from drafting a rookie in next month’s NFL Draft, should the situation break right for them. With no pick before 16^th and a lot of QB-needy teams ahead of them, that seems unlikely, hence the Brissett move, but it’s not off the board as an option.

Meanwhile, the Brissett signing takes one of the last biggish names off the board at the quarterback position. With still no starter in Indianapolis, Carolina, Houston and other places, the best remaining free agent quarterbacks are, in some order, Carson Wentz, Marcus Mariota, Teddy Bridgewater, Matt Ryan and Gardner Minshew. In other words, this year’s rookie crop is likely only going to grow in popularity.