The Cardinals are looking for quarterback Gardner Minshew to recapture some of his Washington State magic on Sunday when Arizona visits the Seattle Seahawks.
Minshew, who excelled for the Cougars under the late coach Mike Leach, has taken over as starter for the Cardinals after leading Arizona to a come-from-behind victory over the Dallas Cowboys last weekend.
Minshew was selected as the Cardinals' new starter on Tuesday, supplanting Jacoby Brissett, ahead of Sunday's game. Brissett, meanwhile, is headed to the Baltimore Ravens.
Minshew is familiar to Washington football fans, having played his senior season for the Cougars in Pullman on the east side of the state. Under Leach's Air Raid offense, Minshew set a Pac-12 record for passing yards in 2018.
Seahawks tackle Abe Lucas was on that Washington State team, too.
“He’s a hell of a guy and hell of a player. I can’t say enough great things about him. I’d love to see him have success and be in the NFL as long as he’s been and just continue to go until the wheels fall off,” Lucas said. "Obviously, I want to beat him this week, but I am just happy for him. I love the guy.”
Washington State won a school-record 11 games, including an Alamo Bowl victory, in Minshew's single season with the Cougars. He won Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Year honors before he was a sixth-round draft pick by the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Minshew has bounced around the NFL since then, landing with the Cardinals this season on a one-year deal worth $5.75 million.
He said he was grateful for the opportunities that came from his time at Washington State.
“To be here now, it’s still hard to wrap my head around it. (I’m) so grateful for it (and) so fired up to be headed back up there where so many people were so good to me,” Minshew said of the trip to the Pacific Northwest. "Yeah, I always think about that going up there.”
He'll face a Seahawks team that is coming off a 34-17 loss at home on Monday night to the Chicago Bears, which dropped the defending Super Bowl champions to 4-4.
The Seahawks are also shuffling their quarterbacks. Sam Darnold has been ruled out of Sunday's game because of a quad injury and backup Drew Lock is set to take his place.
Darnold was hurt on the final drive of the loss to the Bears. Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald said Darnold also cracked a rib early in the game.
Darnold missed Seattle's 31-7 Week 2 victory over the Cardinals because of a glute injury he sustained in the opener against the Patriots. Last season, when the Seahawks won the Super Bowl, Darnold did not miss a game.
“I have a lot of respect for how he goes through these things because he goes through it. There’s no blink, there’s no flinch. It’s a very matter of fact, attacking mentality, which is reflective of the rest of our team, which I appreciate,” Macdonald said.
Arizona (3-5) at Seattle (4-4)
When/where to watch: Sunday, 4:25 p.m. EST, FOX.
Latest odds: Seahawks by 10 1/2.
Against the spread: Cardinals 4-4, Seahawks 2-4-2.
Last week: The Cardinals beat the Cowboys 33-30 in OT, the Seahawks lost to the Chicago Bears 34-17.
Last meeting: The Seahawks beat the Cardinals 31-7 on Sept. 20, 2026, in Glendale, Arizona.
Series record: Seahawks lead 32-22-1.
Will Seattle's Zach Charbonnet and Jadarian Price fare better against the Cardinals than on Monday night against the Bears? Both running backs returned from injuries but didn't have much of an impact in the loss, with Price gaining 29 yards on 10 carries and Charbonnet with 23 yards on six.
Overall, the Seahawks rank 19th in the NFL with an average of 109.6 yards rushing a game entering Week 9. The Cardinals, meanwhile, are ranked 19th in the NFL in allowing opponents an average of 122.1 rushing yards per game.
— Seattle has won the past 10 meetings with the Cardinals, including a 31-7 road victory in Week 2.
— The Seahawks' defense hasn't allowed a 100-yard rusher in 37 straight games, the longest current streak in the NFL.
— The Cardinals beat the Cowboys 33-30 in overtime last week for their third win of the season, matching their win total from last season.
— Seattle WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba needs 15 receiving yards to reach 1,000 yards for the third season. If he has 100 yards against the Cardinals it will be his fifth straight game with as many. He needs a pair of touchdowns to reach 11, which would be a single-season career high.
— Cardinals RB Tyler Allgeier was selected as the NFC player of the week after running for 147 yards and a touchdown on just 11 carries. He was the team’s only running back by the end of the game. Allgeier has 748 straight carries without a fumble, which is the longest active streak in the NFL.
— Entering Week 9, Seattle has 13 takeaways, tied for third in the league. The Seahawks are 15-0 when they win the turnover battle under Macdonald.
— The Cardinals have won three road games this season, tied for the most in the NFL.
— Cardinals TE Trey McBride has caught 66 passes this season, which leads the NFL and is the highest total through eight games for a TE in NFL history. He has made at least seven catches in the past 10 games.
See AP’s full NFL coverage here
Seattle Seahawks running back Zach Charbonnet runs with the during an NFL football game against the Chicago Bears, Monday, Nov. 2, 2026, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Stephen Brashear)
Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold (14) leaves the field after an NFL football game against the Chicago Bears Monday, Nov. 2, 2026, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Stephen Brashear)
Arizona Cardinals quarterback Gardner Minshew II celebrates an ovetime win against the Dallas Cowboys after an NFL football game in Arlington, Texas, Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump met at the White House on Thursday with a Russian envoy who was on the premises for an event with first lady Melania Trump and suggested that some kind of grand deal about European security was in the works, but said he did not meet with visiting Ukrainian officials who also were on hand.
Trump, who has long boasted he could quickly broker an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine, has lately blamed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for refusing to make concessions to end the conflict. During the closing weeks of the midterm election campaign, Trump struck a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin to remove sanctions from Russian diesel exports.
Trump told reporters he met with Putin envoy Kirill Dmitriev but declined to give details. The meeting took place as Trump’s own envoys held talks with other Ukrainian and European officials at NATO headquarters in Brussels.
“There’s going to be an agreement, it’s going to be a big agreement and it’s going to involve more than Ukraine,” Trump said, adding that it might include all of Europe.
One of the U.S. envoys in Brussels, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, said on social media that Thursday’s talks with Ukraine, NATO and European allies were productive and focused on security guarantees for Ukraine and a broader security structure for Europe. The United States is holding three-way talks next week in Abu Dhabi with Ukraine and Russia, the first trilateral peace discussions since February.
“We are working intensively with all parties to find practical solutions that can bring this war to an end and establish the foundations for lasting peace,” Kushner wrote.
Dmitriev was at the White House for an event recognizing the recent six-day truce between Russia and Ukraine in the besieged Ukrainian city of Oleshky. The local ceasefire in the war-divided region of Kherson in southern Ukraine was in effect from Oct. 27 to Nov. 1 and amounted to the most significant truce since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Dmitriev thanked the first lady for her “distinguished humanitarian role” in securing the temporary ceasefire. Dmitriev said Putin personally gave instructions as part of the operation and sent his thanks to Melania Trump for her work.
The head of the parliamentary faction of Zelenskyy’s party, Davyd Arakhamia, and Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman, Dmytro Lubinets, also spoke at the event.
Trump did not say why he didn’t meet with the Ukrainian officials, and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Arakhamia told the first lady she did an “amazing job" and encouraged her to keep helping the Ukrainian people, who have endured more than four years of war after Putin sent his troops across the border and invaded the country in February 2022.
“Definitely we would like to ask you to keep going and to find new missions and to de-escalate more as much as possible,” Arakhamia said.
The first lady has worked with both countries since last year to reunite families separated by the war. So far, she has helped nearly three dozen children return to their relatives.
She said Thursday that she hoped the Oleshky ceasefire could become more enduring and more widespread.
“Let Oleshky be the modest spark that grows into a lasting flame of peace,” she said.
Zelenskyy, in a speech in Spain last week, said the operation in Oleshky proved “something very simple. When Putin wants the fighting to stop, it stops. And there was real silence, no attacks some days, and we saved hundreds of lives.”
The ceasefire is the latest example of how Melania Trump has become more involved in foreign affairs than some of her recent predecessors, who typically travel abroad to spread U.S. goodwill and largely avoid involvement with warring countries, though there have been some exceptions.
In 2022, months after Russia invaded Ukraine, first lady Jill Biden traveled to western Ukraine to visit with Zelenskyy's wife in a town far away from the front lines. Under tight security, first lady Laura Bush made several visits to war-torn Afghanistan.
In an announcement that came as a surprise, the White House said on Oct. 23 that the first lady had brokered the ceasefire to help with the delivery of much-needed humanitarian aid and to allow civilians to evacuate from a place she described as being “on the brink of disaster.”
An estimated 2,000 people remained in Oleshky when the temporary truce took hold. They were offered the choice of evacuating to territory controlled by Ukraine or Russia, or remaining in the city with replenished food and medical supplies.
Supplies were delivered during the six-day window while hundreds of Oleshky residents crossed into Ukrainian-held territory in a major evacuation operation.
Melania Trump said Thursday that nearly 800 people had been evacuated from Oleshky, and she described how she initiated talks with officials in both countries after learning about the situation at an event she held on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly session in September. She said she and her top adviser, Marc Beckman, worked directly with Russian and Ukrainian leadership to define the terms of the ceasefire.
Food and medical supplies had been scarce for months in Oleshky, once a city of about 24,000 residents that sits on the Dnipro River separating Ukrainian forces from the city’s Russian occupiers. There is no electricity, heat or running water.
Oleshky was captured by Moscow’s forces on the first day of Russia’s full-scale invasion. Its buildings were shelled and burned, and its infrastructure damaged. In June 2023, floodwaters inundated the city after the Kakhovka Dam collapsed from an explosion that an Associated Press investigation found was likely caused by the Russian military. Hundreds of residents were killed.
Those left in the city along Ukraine’s southeastern front face death from hunger or disease as another harsh winter looms. Ukraine has appealed repeatedly for a local ceasefire to organize evacuations. Russia, as the occupying power, is obligated by international law to ensure civilians under its control have what they need to survive.
The first lady presented Putin and Zelenskyy's representatives with large white envelopes and asked them to deliver her personal letter to each leader. Dmitriev presented her with a painting from an 11-year-old girl, while Zelenskyy sent her a Ukrainian award recognizing her role in the ceasefire.
Associated Press writers Michelle L. Price and Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands, contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump speaks after signing an executive order in the Oval Office of the White House Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
First lady Melania Trump, from right, hands letters written for the presidents of Ukraine and Russia to Davyd Arakhamia, head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's Servant of the People party and Russian Presidential Envoy Kirill Dmitriev, during a meeting with the first lady and Russian and Ukrainian representatives in the Grand Foyer of the White House, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Russian Presidential Envoy Kirill Dmitriev speaks during a meeting with first lady Melania Trump and Russian and Ukrainian representatives in the Grand Foyer of the White House, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Russian Presidential Envoy Kirill Dmitriev speaks alongside first lady Melania Trump during a meeting with Russian and Ukrainian representatives in the Grand Foyer of the White House, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Russian Presidential Envoy Kirill Dmitriev, left, presents first lady Melania Trump with a gift during a meeting with Russian and Ukrainian representatives in the Grand Foyer of the White House, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
First lady Melania Trump arrives to speak during a meeting with Russian and Ukrainian representatives in the Grand Foyer of the White House, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
First lady Melania Trump attends a meeting with Russian and Ukrainian representatives in the Grand Foyer of the White House, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Davyd Arakhamia, head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's Servant of the People party, speaks alongside first lady Melania Trump during a meeting with Russian and Ukrainian representatives in the Grand Foyer of the White House, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Ukraine's human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets, left, presents first lady Melania Trump with a state award during a meeting with Russian and Ukrainian representatives in the Grand Foyer of the White House, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
First lady Melania Trump speaks during a meeting with Russian and Ukrainian representatives in the Grand Foyer of the White House, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Ukraine's human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets, left, presents first lady Melania Trump with a state award during a meeting with Russian and Ukrainian representatives in the Grand Foyer of the White House, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
