On Wednesday, the Green Bay Packers landed a player who was one of Jonathan Gannon’s best success stories with the Philadelphia Eagles. Green Bay signed free agent defensive tackle Javon Hargrave, who had just been released by the Minnesota Vikings, to a two-year deal, reuniting him with his former defensive coordinator.
Gannon coached Hargrave in Philadelphia, where Hargrave posted 18.5 total sacks in two years with Gannon as defensive coordinator. Now the Packers are rumored to be linked to another of Gannon’s former Eagles players, one who matched Hargrave’s sack production in those same two years. That player is Josh Sweat, who also played for Gannon’s Arizona Cardinals in 2025.
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According to Cardinals reporter Johnny Venerable, Sweat was unhappy when the Cardinals fired Gannon from their head coaching position and requested to be traded. Now, Easton Butler is reporting that the Packers are among the teams interested in acquiring him in a trade.
Sweat, who will turn 29 years old later this month, signed a 4-year, $76.4 million contract with Arizona as a free agent last offseason after spending seven years with the Eagles. In Gannon’s two years with the the Eagles, Sweat had 7.5 and 11 sacks, respectively, matching Hargrave exactly in both seasons. The former 4th-round draft pick then had an excellent season for Arizona last fall, posting career-highs with 12 sacks and four forced fumbles while starting every game.
The Packers were even mentioned as having potential interest in Sweat last offseason before he signed with Arizona.
Adding Sweat to the edge group would allow the Packers to ease Micah Parsons back into the lineup amid his recovery from a torn ACL. He is also a quality run defender, and Gannon certainly knows how to employ him with Sweat posting his highest, second-highest, and 4th-highest single-season sack totals in his three seasons playing for Gannon.
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If the Cardinals do want to move Sweat, they would probably do so prior to March 20. Sweat’s contract has an option bonus of $7.2 million due on that date, and they would surely prefer to trade him prior to that bonus coming due. Any team acquiring Sweat prior to that date would owe him that bonus along with just under $10 million in base salary and $1.1 million in other bonuses for a total of $18.1 million in compensation. In all likelihood, a new team would probably restructure Sweat’s contract to reduce his cap hit to some extent.
