Do Packers Have Enough Without Josh Sweat Trade? Here’s What Micah Parsons Says

GREEN BAY, Wis. – There will be no trade for Josh Sweat.

So, the Green Bay Packers will have to get by with what they’ve got in terms of edge rushers to start the season without Micah Parsons.

That, Parsons said, will be enough.

“Oh, 100 percent,” Parsons said on Wednesday at OTAs when asked about the pass rush in general and not Sweat specifically.

Parsons went on to rattle through the depth chart. At defensive tackle, the team added Javon Hargrave to the returning duo of Devonte Wyatt and Karl Brooks.

“To see all three of those guys are going to be on the field at the same time, that’s enough right there,” Parsons said.

Among his fellow edge rushers, Parsons spent the offseason working out with Barryn Sorrell and Collin Oliver. The team drafted another former Penn State star, Dani Dennis-Sutton, in the fourth round. And then there’s Lukas Van Ness. If Van Ness had a fan club, Parsons would be the president.

“I think between all of us, I think Luke is someone that people sleep on the most, and I don’t know why,” Parsons said. “I think by the end of this season, if Luke stays healthy, I think he’ll probably be the favorite. That’s how much confidence I have in him.”

NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport put an end to the trade speculation over Sweat, whose two best seasons as a pass rusher came when new Packers defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon was the Eagles’ defensive coordinator in 2022 and the Cardinals’ head coach in 2025.

This has gained some steam on social media, so just to provide some clarity: #AZCardinals edge rusher Josh Sweat is not being traded. Not to the #Packers or anywhere. Carry on… pic.twitter.com/bImuZfvWLq
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) June 3, 2026

Sweat last offseason signed a four-year contract with the Cardinals worth more than $76 million. While Arizona was horrible and Gannon lost his job, Sweat broke his career high with a dozen sacks and added 13 tackles for losses.

Every edge rusher on Green Bay’s roster, meanwhile, has combined for 15.5 sacks in their careers.

Micah Parsons’ Timetable

Gannon’s fledgling defense has an obvious problem with no obvious solution.

Parsons had surgery on Dec. 29.

“We have a pretty good, strong nine-month rule,” Parsons said. That’s nine months with no football.

“It’s just all about just through the research and the data, there’s no good outcomes with players coming back early from an ACL, especially if you had other things that had to get fixed up,” said Parsons, who also had meniscus surgery. “It’s just all about completing the rehab to the best of our ability and then seeing where we’re at from there.”

Micah Parsons on what’s ahead. Said he had surgery on Dec. 29. pic.twitter.com/ZJ3yp8PZTQ
— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) June 3, 2026

Nine months from Dec. 29 is Sept. 29. Based on that timeline, he could return to practice on Wednesday, Sept. 30 – the first practice before the Week 4 game against Tampa Bay. He would have two full weeks of practice before Week 5 against Chicago or three full weeks of practice before Week 6 against Dallas.

Based on that, a relatively big chunk of the season could be gone before Parsons is back on the field.

With the possibility that Parsons will miss the first four, five or even six games, the Packers will start the season with one of the NFL’s least-impactful edge rushes in terms of proven production.

A first-round pick in 2023, Van Ness has 8.5 sacks in three seasons. He’s joined by Brenton Cox (five sacks since entering the NFL in 2023), Sorrell (1.5 sacks as a rookie), Arron Mosby (one-half sack since entering the NFL in 2022), Oliver (zero sacks in one game as a rookie) and Sutton.

RIP to Josh Sweat Rumors

With the Sweat trade dead, general manager Brian Gutekunst might have to bet on his young talent to keep up in the NFC, a conference that grew even more powerful after the Rams’ blockbuster trade for Myles Garrett.

The Sweat rumors might never have been a thing. He suffered a horrendous knee injury in high school – a torn ACL and dislocated knee, an injury that kept him off some teams’ draft boards and pushed him into the fourth-round of the 2018 draft, when the Eagles selected him.

“I’m 99 percent sure you’re never going to play football again,” he recounted as a rookie with the Eagles. “And there’s a good chance we might have to cut it off.”

A scout from another team told Packers On SI that Sweat is “on his last leg.”

Still, even that scout said it would have been a worthy gamble. Sweat last season tied for eighth in the NFL with 12 sacks – Parsons had 12.5 before he tore his ACL at Denver – and his enormous contract really could be a one-year rental.

For the upcoming season, he will play under a guaranteed base salary of $9.78 million. There isn’t a penny of guaranteed money on the remainder of his contract, meaning the $17.0 million base salaries in 2027 and 2028 can be erased from the team’s salary cap if the Packers decide to move on after the upcoming season.

With Sweat and Van Ness racing off the edges and Hargrave and Wyatt rushing up the middle, the Packers could have had a credible pass rush to open the season. And then, at some point, Parsons would have been added to the mix.

With that, Green Bay could have had a potentially elite pass rush with limitless possibilities.

Instead, the Packers will be trying to survive until Parsons returns. Van Ness will play a critical role, and Parsons said he’s ready for it.

“I believe in him,” he said. “I think sometimes he looks into y’all and that gets to him, but I think he can be as great as he wants to be. So, the guys that we have, like I said, Barryn, he already has the mindset that he’s going to be a top-tier player, and I love that about him. And Collin.

“All of them, really. When you add some of these rookie guys and even some of the vets, like B.C. (Cox) and his presence, we have a really good group. I know they’re going to play hard. They all work hard. I know they’re going to hold it down until I get back. When I get back, we’re all going to push each other to a whole other standard and then we’re going to play a different level of football, for sure.”

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