The Arizona Cardinals opened its mandatory veteran minicamp, which will run from June 8 to June 10. The minicamp will consist of practice sessions only on Tuesday and Wednesday. EDGE rusher Josh Sweat has made an appearance since not showing for any of the voluntary OTAs.
To date, nobody really knows why Sweat wasn’t showing up for the team activities.
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RELATED: SWEAT NOT AT CARDINALS OFFSEASON WORKOUTS
QB Jacoby Brissett had been another holdout but has also reported. But Brissett’s absence is over his demand to have his contract restructured since he was named the starting quarterback and yet is being paid the #30 best salary in the league, basically still playing on a backup salary.
But with Sweat, it is unknown what his deal was.
Perhaps he was upset about the firing of head coach Jonathan Gannon, a defensive coach with whom he had a very close relationship. Both were employed by the Philadelphia Eagles and were one of the reasons that Sweat eventually signed a free agent deal with Arizona. Gannon’s firing might have rubbed Sweat the wrong way.
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Another possibility is the fact that the Cardinals broke a 127-year record for the franchise’s most losses in a single season with 14. That many losses would hurt any athlete’s ego, and Sweat hasn’t been with a losing team since his high school days.
And then there’s the recent draft. With Arizona having the third overall draft pick in this April’s NFL draft, sitting on the board were several elite pass rushers such as Rueben Bain, Jr., Arvell Reese, and Sonny Styles. Yet, GM Monti Ossenfort passed on all of them. What a sight that would have been seeing one of these young bucks bookended with Sweat. Currently, DE Darius Robinson is opposite Sweat and has been a huge disappointment, so Sweat might feel like he doesn’t have any help getting to the quarterback.
For now, those opinions aren’t important. He is in minicamp.
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Sweat was taken in Round 4 by the Eagles in 2018 out of Florida State. He played sparingly in his first three seasons, but started 13 of 16 games in 2021 and made the Pro Bowl. From that point on, he was the starting EDGE defender.
For his eight-year career, he has played in 121 games with 81 starts, had 267 total tackles, 55 sacks, 67 tackles for loss, 114 QB hits, 11 forced fumbles, 1 fumble recovery, 13 batted passes, 1 interception, 47 hurries, 56 knockdowns, 163 pressures, and 10 missed tackles.
As the Cardinals’ OTAs came and went and Sweat did not participate, rumors began to swirl that other NFL clubs were calling about his services. He is currently in the second year of a four-year, $76.4 million contract he signed in 2025 with $41 million guaranteed.
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Yearly salary and cap hits
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2025: $22.1 million salary | $7.24 million cap hit
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2026: $18.1 million salary | $16.38 million cap hit
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2027: $18.1 million salary | $23.6 million cap hit
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2028: $18.1 million salary | $23.6 million cap hit
Even though Sweat had not demanded a trade, the trade mill started to swirl from pass-rush-needy teams and their media affiliates. Stated Seth Cox of Revenge of the Birds:
“One thing about that fodder is when the NFL insiders start talking about them trading their good players, and that started today with Josh Sweat. Here is the thing, trading Josh Sweat this offseason makes absolutely zero sense for the Arizona Cardinals. They did nothing, literally nothing, to upgrade the edge position, so trading away their only viable pass rusher would be something that doesn’t make sense.”
In one season with Arizona, Sweat started all 17 games with 28 pressures, 13 tackles for loss, and a career-best 12 sacks, among other stats. There is nothing there that screams to trade the only real pass rusher the franchise has on its roster.
Right now, Sweat has proved his worth. Ossenfort hasn’t done him any favors by bringing in another good pass rusher to assist with getting into the opponent’s backfield.
