Arizona Cardinals edge rusher Josh Sweat survived countless trade rumors this offseason. But with the Cardinals now already falling behind in the NFC West playoff picture, general manager Monti Ossenfort should strongly consider changing that trade stance on Sweat.
The Cardinals now sit at 1-4 thanks to an active four-game losing streak, one that will be difficult to snap in Week 6 against a Los Angeles Rams team looking to get their season on track. They've already traded Marvin Harrison Jr. to the Houston Texans after an underwhelming start to Year 3. And they shouldn't stop there. With this rebuild in need of a drastic overhaul, it increasingly makes sense for Arizona to shop veterans like Sweat and turn them into future assets.
Cardinals should embrace the rebuild by trading veteran Josh Sweat
In fact, Bleacher Report's Kristopher Knox recently ranked Sweat as the No. 4 trade candidate on his NFL trade block big board heading into Week 6. Knox names the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers as potential suitors, with a projected trade value of a conditional 2027 fourth-round pick.
While it's not exactly a franchise-altering return, it's still in Arizona's best long-term interest to get whatever future assets they can. Sweat doesn't fit their rebuilding timeline at 29. And though he's signed through 2028, the Cardinals do have the option of releasing Sweat with a post-June 1 designation to save a substantial $18.1 million in cap space.
Knox suggests it could be more beneficial to trade Sweat "well ahead of 2027," and we tend to agree, especially given the Cardinals' struggles as of late.
This defense just surrendered 45 points to the Detroit Lions, marking the fourth consecutive game of 30-plus points. They are giving up an average of 32.4 points per game to opponents through five weeks, which is not only leading the league by a noticeable margin but also a large enough sample size to suggest this is a problem that's here to stay.
Keeping veterans like Sweat around clearly isn't working anyway for this defense. Taking one step back to better position themselves for the future should be the theme of the Cardinals' season, and that applies to exploring trades for veterans such as Sweat.
Not to mention all this losing has to be taking a toll on these players, potentially risking a disgruntled Sweat. Should he be the one to request the trade, it risks the trade value diminishing as the Cardinals would then lose key leverage. They should proactively get ahead of that by shopping Sweat to a borderline contender like Chicago that could view him as the missing piece to get over the top.
That likely should've been the case before the start of the season anyway, as this season was expected to go this way. But with the Cardinals now officially off to a poor start to the 2026 season, they should be even further incentivized to turn Sweat into future assets.
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