The Green Bay Packers will be without their best and most important player early on in the season. Micah Parsons is still working his way back from an ACL injury, and it might be over a month before he can take the field.
While the Packers' early-season schedule isn't as demanding as what they'll face later, not having Parsons is a glaring concern. As such, they should consider dipping their toes in the trade market for another pass rusher.
Considering that, and given his ties to new defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon, FanSided's Austen Bundy believes that Josh Sweat would be a seamless fit for the Packers. In fact, there's an easy -- but expensive -- way they could lure him to Lambeau Field.
In this proposed scenario, the Packers would have to send a 2027 third-round pick and a conditional 2028 fourth-round pick to the desert to get their hands on Sweat. In return, the Cardinals would also give them a 2027 sixth-round selection.
The Packers need to be aggressive to get Josh Sweat
"Sweat comes with a $9.78 million salary cap hit, and Green Bay recently cleared $9.3 million in space. His contract could be reworked, but there would need to be some sort of compensation from the Cardinals to incentivize the extra financial gymnastics," explained Bundy. "That's where this potential deal would involve a 2027 sixth-rounder heading to the Packers. Otherwise, Arizona gets its top-100 pick in a third-rounder next April plus an additional pick the following year as the rebuild continues."
The Packers' draft capital situation isn't necessarily the healthiest. They didn't have a first-round selection in 2026 because of the Parsons trade, and they don't own their first-rounder in 2027, either. They do own the Philadelphia Eagles' first-round pick, but that's likely to be in the 20s.
As such, moving a third-round pick in a stacked draft would be a major risk. They do have two four-rounders, and this move would give them the sixth-round pick they're missing, but it would still be something worth giving it plenty of thought.
From a football perspective, though, it should be an easy decision to make. Sweat, who already played with Gannon in Philadelphia and Arizona, was one of the few bright spots in the bottom-feeding Cardinals last season.
He played (and started) in all 17 games and finished the season with 30 tackles, 13 tackles for loss, 17 quarterback hits, 12.0 sacks, four forced fumbles, two passes defensed, and one fumble recovery. He's already familiar with the system, and he'd be elite insurance in case Lukas Van Ness gets hurt or underperforms again.
The Packers made an aggressive move when they got Parsons, and they should be all set in the pass-rushing department once he finally gets back on the field. That said, it might be a while before he recovers his explosiveness, and finding him a proven sidekick will take plenty of pressure off his shoulders.
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