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Pass-rusher Josh Sweat of the Arizona Cardinals.
The Chicago Bears don’t appear in any rush to add another pass-rusher opposite defensive end Montez Sweat, which either means the team is betting on internal development or it has a specific target in mind via trade or free agency.
It could be weeks before the public at large is aware of which preference Chicago has chosen. In the meantime, there are worthy examinations and discussions to be had about who might fit into a Bears’ defensive front that was among the worst in the NFL last season at pressuring opposing quarterbacks.
On Friday, June 12, Gary Davenport of Bleacher Report authored a trade proposal in which Chicago flips two third-round picks, a conditional selection in 2027 and an outright third-rounder in 2028, to the Arizona Cardinals in return for pass-rusher Josh Sweat.
Josh Sweat Would Add Much-Needed Pass-Rush Improvement to Bears’ Defensive Line
GettyPass-rusher Josh Sweat of the Arizona Cardinals.
Davenport’s case for Josh Sweat flipping franchises mostly centered around team contention.
“The harsh reality is that Arizona may well be the NFL’s worst team in 2026 — the Redbirds aren’t going to be contenders for a while,” Davenport wrote. “The Bears, meanwhile, are the defending NFC North champions and a team that badly needs to upgrade the pass rush after logging just 35 sacks last season.”
“Pairing Josh Sweat and Montez Sweat would accomplish that goal — and almost guarantee that multiple broadcasters mistakenly call them brothers or cousins, even though they are not related,” he continued.
Thus far, the Cardinals have downplayed any interest in trading Josh Sweat, but things could certainly evolve depending on whether he desires a trade strongly and what kind of noise/demands he is willing to make if he is interested in playing elsewhere.
Unclear if Josh Sweat Wants Out of Arizona for Any Reason
GettyPass-rusher Josh Sweat of Arizona Cardinals.
Sweat, 29 years old, has three years remaining on a $76.4 million deal.
However, he signed that contract last season to play for then-Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon, who had been Josh Sweat’s defensive coordinator with the Philadelphia Eagles for two seasons in the recent past.
Arizona bottomed out and the team axed Gannon, who has since moved on to run the Green Bay Packers defense. Meanwhile, Josh Sweat put up a career-best 12 sacks in 2025.
The team is starting over to at least some degree in 2026, with a new head coach and no clear longterm answer at quarterback currently on the roster. Thus, it is possible that Josh Sweat could ask out for a more competitive opportunity elsewhere.
His salary has not been a strong topic of discussion, though Jonathan Greenard pushed his way out of the Minnesota Vikings organization this offseason all the way to Philly’s locker room based on financial concerns. And there are some meaningful parallels between Josh Sweat’s situation this offseason and the one that Greenard faced.
Greenard produced a career campaign in 2024 and before battling injury issues last season, though his advanced metrics still identified him as a borderline elite pass-rusher. Also 29, Greenard saw the spike in salaries for edge-rushers over the last year and made his play for a raise while he still maintained meaningful leverage.
Sweat is under contract through his age-32 campaign, and it is difficult to project how he might age over the next three years with injuries always lurking as a possible factor.
Max Dible covers the NFL, NBA and MLB for Heavy.com, with a focus on the Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings, Chicago Bears and Cleveland Browns. He covered local and statewide news as a reporter for West Hawaii Today and served as news director for BigIslandNow.com and Pacific Media Group's family of Big Island radio stations before joining Heavy. More about Max Dible