Cardinals Are Betting on Josh Sweat Getting Healthy. That's a Significant Bet.

The GM said Monday that Arizona has no interest in trading Josh Sweat, which closes one conversation and opens another. Sweat remains on the physically unable to perform list with a knee injury, and the depth behind him at defensive end — Jonah Williams and L.J. Collier — has produced at a fraction of what a starting edge rusher should. That's the roster the Cardinals are working with right now, and the GM's public commitment to keeping Sweat means the plan is to wait him out.

The situation at defensive tackle isn't much better. Andrew Billings is the only interior lineman who logged meaningful snaps last season; there's no established rotation behind him. Walter Nolen III was activated earlier this month and then promptly re-injured his calf, which is about as clean a summary of this defensive front as you'll find. The Cardinals added a pair of players to the roster on August 9 — noted here yesterday — but those moves don't change the structural picture on the line.

So the organization is essentially running a single-thread strategy at multiple positions along the front: hold Sweat, hope he returns healthy, and trust that the depth can survive until he does. That's not unreasonable if Sweat comes back at full capacity. It is a real problem if he doesn't, or if the timeline slips into the regular season. For a team that went 3-14 last year and was outscored by 133 points, the margin for that kind of gamble is thin.