1 move Packers must make to keep up with Rams after Myles Garrett trade

Around this time last season, the Green Bay Packers were crowned the early favorites to win the Super Bowl. After trading for former DPOY Micah Parsons, many believed that this team would be the easy candidates to at least represent the NFC in the Super Bowl. A year later, we’re seeing the same thing happen with a different NFC team: the Los Angeles Rams.

The Rams swung for the fences this offseason, trading for reigning Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett. The Rams, who were already one of the top contenders to come out of the NFC in the upcoming season, just became the overwhelming favorite to win the entire thing. Meanwhile, the Packers are now one of the teams scrambling to compete with LA’s suddenly dominant team.

The Packers have a few ways of improving their roster. The free agency market still has a few names who can be contributors: mostly older veterans who still have a few good years left in them. However, there’s one move that the Packers could do, a move that they’re already rumored to be considering.

Packers must push through with rumored Josh Sweat trade

A few hours after the Garrett-to-Rams trade news broke out, one Packers insider reported that the team is in talks with the Arizona Cardinals. Their target? Former Philadelphia Eagles pass-rusher Josh Sweat, who quietly had himself one of the more productive pass-rush seasons last year.

Sweat had 12 sacks last season playing for the Cardinals, often being one of the only few players that kept Arizona in their games. It’s not like it was a fluke season, too: Sweat was able to get his numbers on a Philadelphia team well-known for sending out a platoon of elite pass-rushers. He had at least six sacks in his last six years, including an 11-sack season in 2022 and eight sacks during Philly’s championship run in 2024.

The Packers, meanwhile, have a problem with their pass-rushing unit. Yes, Parsons is a wrecking ball capable of dismantling defenses on his own. His gravity on the line was felt by fans, as every pass-rusher seemingly got easier looks with Parsons drawing double-teams. However, Parsons masked the shortcomings of the defensive line, and that was heavily felt when he went down with a torn ACL midway through the season.

Parsons is a multiplicative player: he makes his teammates around him better. Still, that doesn’t mean that the Packers should be content with him merely elevating his fellow pass-rushers. Green Bay needs to find a way to get Parsons more help from the edges to allow him to do what he does best. That is, of course, destroying opposing offensive lines from nearly any position on the field.

Sweat would be an instant upgrade at the position over the other edges on the Packers’ defensive line. Sweat also fits the bill for Green Bay for a multitude of reasons. With Jeff Hafley’s departure, the new defensive coordinator for the team is ex-Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon. Sweat has a ton of experience under Gannon’s system, playing for him during the latter’s time as a DC in Philly, and, of course, last season in Arizona before Gannon was fired.

Unlike last season, the Packers are now the hunters instead of the ones being hunted. Green Bay knows all too well that being preseason favorites doesn’t guarantee that you’ll be playing in late January. The easy answer is to fight fire with fire and try to bolster your offensive line, but Green Bay isn’t really in a position to sign tackles in free agency, and any offensive lineman that gets traded mid-season… is traded for a reason. Teams don’t let go of good offensive linemen as easily as other positions. The next best thing for the Packers is to make sure their defense can keep the Rams (and the other NFC contenders) at bay while their offense figures out how to beat Garrett and the LA defense.

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