There are few answers when a team loses its starting and backup quarterbacks before the season is halfway through, but the Baltimore Ravens are trying their best to find one. Baltimore acquired Jacoby Brissett and a 2027 fifth-round pick from the Arizona Cardinals in exchange for a 2027 fourth-round pick and a 2028 seventh-round pick, per ESPN's Adam Schefter.

The trade was first agreed to Wednesday and became official Friday, after the Ravens' 33-10 "Thursday Night Football" loss to the Jaguars.

Sunday against the Bills, the Ravens lost Lamar Jackson (thumb) on their first offensive play of the game and his backup, Tyler Huntley (turf toe), shortly thereafter. Jackson is on IR, meaning he will miss at least the next three games, and Jesse Minter said the injury and surgery are "potentially" season-ending. ESPN's Adam Schefter reported Wednesday that Huntley is done for the season. The Ravens are 4-5 and have lost four straight.

Brissett is in line to start in Week 10, against the Chargers on "Monday Night Football," and beyond. The Ravens' current available quarterbacks are undrafted rookie Joe Fagnano, who finished the loss to the Bills and started against the Jaguars, as well as Kedon Slovis and Austin Reed. The latter two signed this week.

Brissett started the Cardinals' first eight games of the season, but he got benched halfway through Arizona's Week 8 game against the Cowboys. After Gardner Minshew led a stunning comeback, Mike LaFleur named Minshew the starter and rookie Carson Beck the backup. Brissett was demoted to third string, and, given the Ravens' dire situation, it seemed a natural fit right away. It didn't take long thereafter.

Here's how both sides fared in the deal.

Baltimore Ravens: B-

Brissett is not going to save the Ravens' season by himself. There are several major issues with this team, issues that he cannot overcome; it requires an MVP-level talent like Jackson to do it. But the Ravens owed it to everyone involved to make a trade.

They owed it to the other players, Fagnano included. It's unfair to throw an undrafted into the fire and try to ride it out for more than half the season. No undrafted rookie quarterback in the past six years has started more than six games. Reed has never taken an NFL snap, and Slovis has only taken a handful. Both are former undrafted guys who have been out of the league or on its fringes. It would have been untenable to start any of them long-term.

They also owed it to first-year coach Jesse Minter and first-year offensive coordinator Declan Doyle, the latter of whom has done some nice work. With Brissett, the Ravens will get an offensive environment that is, at the very least, workable. It won't be good, probably, but it will give Baltimore a fighting chance more often than not. It's important to have this in place so the team can fairly evaluate the rest of the offense, both in the short and long term.

As for Brissett the player, he is generally fine — a low-level starter/high-end backup. He's been that for years, and the "for years" part is important here. Given the inexperience of the other quarterbacks, Baltimore simply had to get someone who has played significant NFL snaps.

Brissett can support a mediocre passing attack. Since the start of last year, he actually ranks 17th out of 30 qualified quarterbacks in passing success rate, though he is 28th in net yards per attempt because he doesn't produce many big plays and takes a decent number of sacks.

After the Chargers game, the Ravens face the Panthers, two potentially winnable games with Brissett. Then there's a game against the Texans and a bye week. That'd mark the shortest possible timetable for a Jackson return, though it doesn't sound like he'd be ready then.

Unfortunately for Baltimore, this doesn't look like a team that can lean on a "defense plus running game" formula. The Ravens are mediocre defensively, a disappointment considering how good Minter had been as the Chargers' defensive coordinator, and Derrick Henry has taken a massive fall-off this year. Part of that has surely been due to Jackson's absences, but it's not like Brissett changes that part of the equation much.

Long story short, the Ravens are in an awful situation, which means their grade can only be so high. Giving up picks for low-level, short-term replacements is never good. But Baltimore also consistently racks up compensatory picks, making the draft capital lost hurt a little less. The most likely outcome is the Ravens field an average/below-average offense, but one that at least works. Decent, if unexciting, works in an unenviable situation.

Arizona Cardinals: A

If you told any Cardinals fan entering this season that they would beat the Chargers, Rams and Cowboys and get draft capital for Brissett — a guy who skipped parts of this offseason due to contract frustration (remember that?) — by midseason, they'd be pretty happy.

Minshew and Brissett were pretty redundant in the big picture, not in terms of their play styles (Minshew is more aggressive and more turnover-prone) but in their overall archetype: veteran, journeyman, valuable backup. The Cardinals making a miracle Minshew-led comeback, lining up perfectly with the Ravens losing two quarterbacks in the same game, was fortuitous for Arizona.

Even if Minshew struggles so much that he needs to be benched, the Cardinals were probably going to turn to Beck at some point anyway, if only to see what they have in the third-round rookie. At 3-5, the Cardinals are not going anywhere this season, and they knew that before the year even started. It's an early-stage rebuild year. Brissett is the exact type of veteran Arizona should be selling ahead of the Nov. 10 trade deadline. That they were able to get notable draft capital for a player who not only wasn't in the long-term plans but, as of Sunday, was no longer in the short-term plans is great business.