Sweat Equity could be Cowboys not-so-secret trade plan to color edges

When Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones immediately reneged on his promise not to give the media anything salacious this training camp, the news that he was working on a major trade circulated immediately. A line of questioning from NFL Network’s Jane Slater revisited the Maxx Crosby ordeal from the spring, and it grabbed all of the headlines from content creators who have been starved of the annual spigot of Cowboys-related drama.

Jones offered that he had recently been on the phone with another owner about a possible addition, and son Stephen has constantly proclaimed the team is always looking to improve their roster. But what if Crosby isn’t the defender the Jones are keeping tabs on? Crosby is at Raiders camp, doing media spots and spewing his love for the Las Vegas desert. Perhaps the attention is gazing on the wrong desert.

Josh Sweat, whom the Cowboys have already tried to acquire one before during this offseason, is still a no-show at Arizona Cardinals camp. The team placed him on the PUP list with “knee maintenance”, but no one is falling for that in the least bit. First-time head coach Mike Lafluer is towing the line, saying that Sweat’s absence isn’t a problem, in a silly attempt to memory hole the fact he demanded a trade way back in January.

And while Sweat has made it known his preference is to reunite with former head coach Jonathan Gannon, now on the staff in Green Bay — and that is a perfect fit for him — it sure would seem that he’d be perfectly fine with being shipped out to a different team that looks like their a dominant pass rusher away from being Super Bowl contenders.

Perhaps it’s Sweat that the Cowboys are keeping close tabs on, potentially sending draft compensation over to Arizona. The Cardinals are one of the few teams who legitimately aren’t trying to compete in 2026 as they undergo yet another rebuild. They already paid his option bonus of over $7 million, and Sweat is set to earn another $9.7 million in salary this year as part of what amounts to three years, $44 million remaining on his contract.

Sweat, who totaled 12 sacks last year and ranks No. 12 on Bleacher Report’s Top Edge Rusher list for 2026, could be a huge addition for Chirstian Parker’s new-look defense. The team has seen good things out of their current rotation of edge rushers, but it’s certainly not a group that can’t be significantly upgraded.

Dallas has Rashan Gary, Donovan Ezeiruaku as starters, with first-round pick Malachi Lawrence set to figure prominently in a rotation. Adding Sweat to that group would unlock the Cowboys’ rotation, making Sam Williams and James Houston luxuries as OLB5 and OLB6.

Having three of the NFL’s top 35 edge rushers plus a first-round pick is the type of thing a “waves of pressure” system Parker wants to deploy a dream scenario.

Reports say that Tampa Bay’s offer of a fourth-round pick around draft time was not enough to get the deal done, which returns the conversation to Jones saying he’s absolutely willing to trade picks from the 2027 draft, regarded as one of the stronger classes in recent years.

Could the Cowboys be working on building some Sweat equity?

This article originally appeared on Cowboys Wire: Sweat Equity could be Cowboys not-so-secret trade plan to color edges