Josh Sweat is back on the field for the Arizona Cardinals.
The team activated its top sack producer from the PUP list on Monday in Tempe, Arizona, and Sweat practiced with Arizona for the first time since last season. It marked his first on-field work with the club after sitting out the voluntary offseason program, missing the lone mandatory minicamp practice and then remaining sidelined through the start of training camp.
Head coach Mike LaFleur said Sweat had been dealing with a knee issue, though he described it as maintenance. That explanation comes with some obvious questions, since it still took about a month before Sweat was cleared to practice.
Whatever the exact reason behind the delay, Arizona badly needed him back. Sweat led the Cardinals with 12 sacks last season, while the rest of the team’s outside linebackers combined for just 5.5.
The knee situation is what makes this more than a simple activation. If the team’s version is the full story, Sweat is working through a knee that has required careful management. Because he was on PUP, the issue had to be football-related, which points either to something that carried over from last season or something that surfaced right as camp began.
There is another possibility, at least one that has been floated around the situation: that Sweat’s absence had more to do with his unhappiness than his knee. In that version, he simply avoided OTAs, minicamp and training camp while the team let him sit until the regular season approaches.
Either way, the Cardinals have their leading pass rusher back on the field, and that changes the look of their defense right away.
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