{"id":165419,"date":"2024-03-10T15:00:32","date_gmt":"2024-03-10T19:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=165419"},"modified":"2024-03-10T12:08:10","modified_gmt":"2024-03-10T16:08:10","slug":"josh-sweat-trade-eagles-nolan-smith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/03\/10\/josh-sweat-trade-eagles-nolan-smith\/","title":{"rendered":"11-Sack Pass Rusher Receiving Serious Trade Interest"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Philadelphia Eagles have one of the deepest groups of edge rushers in the league, and they might trade Josh Sweat to try and bolster other parts of the roster. A former fourth-round pick in the 2018 <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024-nfl-draft-profiles\/\" target=\"_self\">NFL Draft<\/a>, Sweat began his career as a situational role player before blossoming into one of the more reliable edge defenders in the league. The Florida State product made his first Pro Bowl in 2021 and recorded a career-high 11 sacks in 2022.<\/p>\n<p>While his 2023 season wasn&#8217;t as statistically dominant as his previous campaigns, he still finished with 6.5 sacks, 43 tackles, seven tackles-for-loss, and 23 quarterback hits in 17 games. However, with <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2023\/04\/02\/nolan-smith-2023-nfl-draft-profile\/\" target=\"_self\">first-round pick Nolan Smith<\/a> impressing internally, the Eagles are willing to listen to trade offers for Josh Sweat.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Eagles?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Eagles<\/a> are having trade calls on DE Josh Sweat, sources tell me and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RapSheet?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@RapSheet<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>Sweat has 35 career sacks and is still only 26 years old. Philly is starting over with a new defensive staff and Sweat could be on the move. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/81I3k7RSeQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/81I3k7RSeQ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TomPelissero\/status\/1766481559031271482?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 9, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Philadelphia Eagles Entertaining Josh Sweat Trade Calls<\/h2>\n<p>It will be interesting to see how this Josh Sweat trade goes down. The six-year veteran is entering the final year of his contract and currently carries a $9.08 million cap hit, <a href=\"https:\/\/overthecap.com\/player\/josh-sweat\/7015\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">per OverTheCap<\/a>. However, the deal has some void years on it, which complicates matters for salary cap purposes.<\/p>\n<p>If the Eagles trade Josh Sweat before June 1st, the edge rusher&#8217;s cap hit would <em>increase<\/em> to $14.5 million in 2024. Obviously, the Eagles aren&#8217;t going to do this unless they get substantial compensation, which is highly unlikely. However, if they wait until after June 1st, Sweat&#8217;s cap hit will drop to $4.77 million, clearing roughly $4.3 million in salary cap space.<\/p>\n<p>So, if the Eagles are going to trade Josh Sweat, it probably won&#8217;t officially happen for another few months. Perhaps Philadelphia agrees to terms with another team, but the transaction won&#8217;t officially process until June. Regardless of when the deal goes through, some other organizations should be interested in adding a reliable pass rusher into the mix.<\/p>\n<h3>Best Team Fits<\/h3>\n<h4>Jacksonville Jaguars<\/h4>\n<p>The Jacksonville Jaguars desperately need to find somebody capable of lining up opposite Josh Allen. The former first-round pick is an elite pass rusher, recording 17.5 sacks during the 2023 season. However, this team doesn&#8217;t have anybody else capable of getting after the quarterback. Josh Sweat isn&#8217;t the type of player who can lead a pass rush on all his own, but the trade candidate could be a great second fiddle for Allen.<\/p>\n<h4>New England Patriots<\/h4>\n<p>Sometimes, the best offense is a good defense. The New England <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/03\/08\/report-hunter-henry-signs-contract-patriots\/\" target=\"_self\">Patriots re-signed Hunter Henry<\/a>, but they still have a lot of work to do if they want to build a functioning passing attack. Seeing as they can&#8217;t possibly address every single need in one offseason, New England could decide to win in the short term with elite defensive play. Matthew Judon is a great pass rusher, and acquiring Josh Sweat via trade would improve the unit following the likely departure of Josh Uche.<\/p>\n<h4>New Orleans Saints<\/h4>\n<p>The New Orleans Saints have once again restructured their way out of salary cap hell. While they probably can&#8217;t afford top-dollar free agents, they should be able to spring a trade for somebody like Josh Sweat. Armed with three compensatory fifth-round picks, New Orleans has the draft capital required to make a deal like this happen.<\/p>\n<h4>Kansas City Chiefs<\/h4>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/03\/09\/chiefs-land-95-million-superstar-in-blockbuster-deal\/\" target=\"_self\">Chiefs re-signed Chris Jones<\/a>, but they could use a veteran pass rusher to pair with the All-Pro. Felix Anudike-Uzomah didn&#8217;t do much of anything as a rookie, and the Chiefs could trade for Josh Sweat if they don&#8217;t feel good about the former first-round pick.<\/p>\n<h4>Los Angeles Chargers<\/h4>\n<p>The Los Angeles Chargers need cap space, and they can get it by moving on from Khalil Mack and\/or Joey Bosa. However, doing this means that they won&#8217;t have anyone capable of getting after the quarterback. The Chargers could get two birds with one stone if they go through with a Josh Sweat trade. Sweat isn&#8217;t as good as Mack or Bosa, but he&#8217;s a lot cheaper. The Eagles have a decent amount of cap space, so they might be willing to effectively swap Sweat with one of those more expensive pass rushers.<\/p>\n<p><em>Main Photo: Gary A. Vasquez &#8211; USA Today Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Philadelphia Eagles are reportedly receiving calls as they look to trade one-time Pro Bowl edge defender Josh Sweat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2376,"featured_media":165437,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21,13,16,18,5,28],"tags":[7642,7811,7646,20517,7393,7659],"class_list":["post-165419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eagles","category-jaguars","category-chiefs","category-chargers","category-patriots","category-saints","tag-chargers-featured","tag-chiefs-featured","tag-jaguars-featured","tag-josh-sweat","tag-philadelphia-eagles-news","tag-saints-featured"],"modified_by":"David Latham, Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2376"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}