Josh Sweat has agreed to a restructured contract that keeps him in an Eagles uniform this year.
The restructure doesn’t add any years to Sweat’s contract but is worth $10 million guaranteed in 2024 with incentives that could bring the total value to $13 million. The news was first reported by ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler and confirmed by NBC Sports Philadelphia.
Sweat, the Eagles’ 4th-round pick in 2018, was heading into the final year of his contract and had a $9.1 million cap hit.
What this means for Haason Reddick isn’t immediately clear. Reddick is also going into a contract year and has a massive $21.8 million cap hit in 2024. The Eagles also just gave another edge rusher, Bryce Huff, a three-year, $51 million contract.
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That’s a lot of money for pass rushers, but if anybody can make that work it’s Roseman. The Eagles dropped from 70 sacks in 2022 to 43 last year and that was a big reason the Eagles had the 2nd-worst pass defense in the NFL this past season.
There was all kinds of speculation that the Eagles were trying to trade Sweat - as well as Reddick - and might even release him. Instead, he'll be back for a seventh season with the Eagles.
Sweat showed steady progression as a pass rusher the first few years of his career. He barely played on defense as a rookie – 68 snaps all year – then had 4.0 sacks off the bench in 2019, 6.0 sacks primarily off the bench in 2020 and 7 ½ and a Pro Bowl in 2021 in his first year as a full-time starter and a career-high 11 in 2022.
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But last year was a mystifying one. Like so many other Eagles on both sides of the ball, he got off to a hot start before slumping badly the second half of the season.
Through the first Dallas game, Sweat had 6 ½ sacks in nine weeks and ranked fifth in the NFC. He then went eight straight games without a sack, becoming the first Eagles starting edge rusher on record to go eight straight games without a sack since they became an official NFL stat in 1982. He finished ranked 21st in the NFC in sacks.
But Sweat is still only 26 and has averaged 8 ½ sacks in three seasons as a starter, and with a new defensive staff the Eagles are clearly confident that with a new staff Sweat will regain his form of 2021 through the first half of last year, when he was one of the most productive pass rushers in the NFC.
Sweat’s 35 sacks are 4th-most since 2018 among players drafted in the fourth round or later, behind only 5th-round pick Matt Juden (54 ½) and 4th-round picks Maxx Crosby (52.0) and Za’Darius Smith (50).
He ranks 10th in franchise history in sacks and seventh among players the Eagles have drafted.
For now, in addition to Reddick, Sweat and Huff, the Eagles have edge rushers Brandon Graham and Zack Baun currently on the roster at edge.
So far during this busy offseason, the Eagles have re-signed Graham, Braden Mann, Rick Lovato and Sweat, extended Landon Dickerson and Jake Elliott; added Saquon Barkley, Huff, Baun, Matt Hennessy, DeVante Parker, Devin White and Chauncey Gardner-Johnson; and released Avonte Maddox and Kevin Byard.
Jason Kelce and Fletcher Cox have retired and D’Andre Swift (Bears), Marcus Mariota (Commanders), Nicholas Morrow (Bills) , Jack Stoll (Giants) and Byard (Bears) have signed elsewhere.
NBC Sports Philadelphia's Dave Zangaro contributed to this story.
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