Josh Sweat’s Arizona hold-in lingers, and the trade timing remains a mismatch

Arizona Cardinals pass rusher Josh Sweat’s offseason request is still intersecting with training camp reality, and it is now showing up as a hold-in that is testing the patience of everyone involved. The situation is playing out alongside a mostly orderly early camp period in other parts of the league, but Sweat’s participation status has become the main disruption point for a Cardinals player who, according to Yahoo Sports, has been seeking a trade.

As of the start of this camp window, Sweat is officially on the physically unable to perform list, with the team describing the reason as “knee maintenance.” That label matters because it frames the decision as medical and logistical rather than contractual or disciplinary, even as the broader context of the offseason trade request keeps the story moving like a negotiation in public.

What complicates the timing is that, per Yahoo Sports reporting, there is interest on the other end of the equation, with Green Bay viewed as a team that wants Sweat now rather than later. Arizona, according to the same reporting, is aligned with a different timeline, one that favors selling when the market is most favorable for the Cardinals. In other words, Green Bay’s urgency and Arizona’s leverage plan are not currently aligned.

Yahoo Sports also adds a reported detail about how the request was made operational, describing a sequence in which Sweat allegedly went to the team the day Jonathan Gannon was fired, after Sweat had already submitted a trade request in the offseason. That matters because it suggests Sweat’s camp posture is not random or reactive to a single day’s decision, but instead part of a longer-running effort to push the organization toward a transaction.

For Arizona, a hold-in carries practical risks. The team loses a potentially high-impact edge rusher from live practice reps, and it also places the Cardinals’ defensive installation on a more compressed path if Sweat cannot participate at full speed. At the same time, if Arizona believes the market will improve, the organization may judge that missing reps now is a tolerable cost if it can secure a better return for a valuable asset.

For Green Bay, waiting on a player who is not fully participating can be frustrating, especially when camp is when plans are translated into consistency. An edge rusher fits into the rhythm of pass rush groupings, timing with secondary pressure looks, and the communication patterns that coaches want established before preseason game reps. The competitive stakes of that rhythm are why the “timing isn’t right” dynamic has taken on an outsized importance, even if Sweat’s hold-in is presented officially as knee maintenance.