Over the first five seasons of his career, Josh Sweat continued to get better each year, and that ascension showed up in the stat sheet. In year six in 2023, that trend finally stalled, as Sweat's sack production dipped from 11 in 2022 to 6.5 in 2023.
| Josh Sweat | Tackles | Sacks | FF | QB hits |
| 2018 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 2019 | 21 | 4 | 0 | 10 |
| 2020 | 38 | 6 | 3 | 12 |
| 2021 | 45 | 7.5 | 1 | 13 |
| 2022 | 48 | 11 | 1 | 23 |
| 2023 | 43 | 6.5 | 2 | 23 |
The first half of the 2023 season, Sweat looked something close to a star player. He collected 6.5 sacks in the first 9 games, one of which was a clutch game-winning play against Dallas.
In previous seasons, Sweat didn't play a high number of snaps. In 2022 he played 695 snaps in 19 games (including the playoffs), or 36.6 per game. In 2023, he played 875 snaps in 18 games, or 48.6 per game. There was a four game stretch from Weeks 8-11 against the Commanders, Cowboys, Chiefs, and Bills during which he played 272 snaps, or 68 per game. He played at least 60 snaps in each of those four games, and a ridiculous 81 (!) snaps against the Bills.
He was shut out over the final 8 games of the regular season in the sack column, perhaps partly because he was being overused. This offseason, the Eagles explored trading both Sweat and Haason Reddick. Reddick got dealt, and Sweat took a pay cut.
In 2024, the Eagles have done a much better job of moderating Sweat's snaps, as he is averaging just 39 snaps per game, with a high single-game snap total of 45 snaps. A side-by-side comparison of Sweat's 2023 snaps vs. 2024:
| Game | 2023 snaps | 2024 snaps |
| 1 | 59 | 41 |
| 2 | 40 | 40 |
| 3 | 32 | 34 |
| 4 | 52 | 41 |
| 5 | 40 | 39 |
| 6 | 49 | 36 |
| 7 | 38 | 38 |
| 8 | 61 | 42 |
| 9 | 63 | 37 |
| 10 | 67 | 45 |
| 11 | 81 | 36 |
| 12 | 41 | TBD |
| 13 | 53 | TBD |
| 14 | 46 | TBD |
| 15 | 49 | TBD |
| 16 | 45 | TBD |
| 17 | 12 | TBD |
| 18 | 47 | TBD |
"That Bills game, we played like 80 snaps," Sweat laughed about after the Eagles' win over the Commanders a week ago. "We needed me to play that much last year, because it was close in so many games."
Asked if he felt better at this point in the season this year compared to last Sweat said, "Yeah, for sure. Honestly, my offseason, I tried to tailor it to be a lot stronger, just in case I had to play those snaps again. I'm coming out of every game feeling a lot better."
Sweat has 7 sacks in the Eagles' last 8 games. Here they are:
Sweat is in his seventh NFL season, but he is still only 27 years old. Still, he is probably a player best utilized in moderation. With the loss of Brandon Graham for the season, Sweat's uptick in snaps is going to be unavoidable, but the Eagles' staff must do a better job of making sure his snap counts don't get out of hand, like they did a year ago.
"All of our players' rep counts are on our minds, and thought through," Nick Sirianni said on Tuesday. "Everybody has an individualized plan. Sweaty is no different. He's having a good year. He has his body in shape to play the plays that he is playing. You think about everybody going into every game of how many touches you want them to have, not that you can always control that, how many reps you want them to have, but there's some flexibility within a game. It could swing 5-10 plays either way, so there's some grace there.
- MORE EAGLES
- Eagles-Ravens Week 13 odds preview: A battle of MVP candidates down in Baltimore
- The case for Saquon Barkley for NFL MVP
- 5 things to be thankful for in Philly sports
"It's our job to think through every single player and their health and how we practice them and how we play them each week. With that being said, you do what you need to do to win each football game. It's just like I've said with Saquon, you try to manage it though Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, knowing that every game is so important, and every game you have to focus on how are winning this football game."
There's a good chance that Sweat will be eager to explore the open market in free agency next offseason after the Eagles got him to agree to take a pay cut this season. My guess will be that he will have a slight uptick in snaps the rest of the regular season, and then a much bigger increase during the playoffs, especially since there's a good chance he'll be in another uniform next year.
Follow Jimmy & PhillyVoice on Twitter: @JimmyKempski | thePhillyVoice
Like us on Facebook: PhillyVoice Sports
Add Jimmy's RSS feed to your feed reader