March 09, 2024
The Philadelphia Eagles have received some trade interest in edge rusher Josh Sweat, according to a report from Tom Pelissero and Ian Rapoport of NFL Network.
The #Eagles are having trade calls on DE Josh Sweat, sources tell me and @RapSheet.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) March 9, 2024
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. pic.twitter.com/81I3k7RSeQ
The Eagles "having" trade calls is a little ambiguous. Are they taking calls? Making them? According to Dianna Russini of The Athletic, it's the latter:
The Eagles have been shopping both Josh Sweat and Haasan Riddick for the last few weeks. Look for Philadelphia to aggressively pursue Bryce Huff in free agency.
— Dianna Russini (@DMRussini) March 9, 2024
The Eagles selected Sweat in the fourth round of the 2018 NFL Draft, and he turned out to be a steal. Over the first five seasons of his career, Sweat continued to get better each year, and that ascension also showed up in the stat sheet. In year six, that trend finally stalled, as his 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 |
During the first half of the season in 2023, Sweat looked like a star player. He collected 6.5 sacks in the first 9 games, one of which was a super clutch game-winning play against Dallas. He was shut out the rest of the regular season, but did notch a sack in the Eagles' wildcard round loss to the Buccaneers.
In previous seasons, Sweat didn't play a high number of snaps. In 2022 during his 11-sack season, 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. It's perhaps fair to wonder if Sweat is a player best utilized in moderation.
Sweat is currently scheduled to count for $9,077,000 on the cap in 2024. If the Eagles trade him, he will count for $14,515,000, an increase of $5,438,000. Of course, no matter what the Eagles do with Sweat, he has a dead money cap hit coming down the pike because the Eagles have already converted his base salaries into prorated bonuses and dumped that money into void all the way out to 2028. In other words, the dead money hit of $14,515,000 that would come with a trade probably isn't as daunting to the Eagles as it may sound to fans, as the team knows they're going to have to pay the bill on him eventually.
It's interesting that the Eagles seem willing to part with either of their pass rushers, as Haason Reddick trade rumors emerged weeks ago.
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