The 49ers have spent most of the season proving they can survive without Nick Bosa. Now, with the trade deadline approaching, they may be ready to stop testing that theory.
San Francisco has emerged as a possible landing spot for Arizona Cardinals edge rusher Josh Sweat, according to NFL insider Jordan Schultz. The 49ers are being mentioned in the same conversation as the Chicago Bears and Dallas Cowboys, as interest in Sweat has continued to build since the spring.
The fit is obvious. San Francisco’s pass rush took a major hit last season, when the team finished with just 20 sacks, the fewest in the league, after Bosa tore his ACL in September.
This year has brought more uncertainty. Bosa has appeared in only two games, has been out since Week 3 with a calf injury, and still has not registered a sack in 2026.
General manager John Lynch has said Bosa is on track to return after the bye, but the 49ers still do not have a reliable finisher off the edge.
They have added help inside by trading for DeForest Buckner, and rookie Gracen Halton and Osa Odighizuwa have each produced two sacks. Even with that boost, the defense still lacks the kind of edge threat that can close out games.
Sweat would bring exactly that. The 29-year-old came to Arizona after winning a Super Bowl in Philadelphia, signing a four-year, $76.4 million deal in March 2025.
He responded with a career-high 12 sacks. His 2026 season opened slowly, with no sacks in the first three weeks, but he has picked it up again with three sacks over a four-game stretch, including a strip of Matthew Stafford in a win over the Rams.
There has been plenty of noise around him for months. Reports that Sweat wanted out, plus his absence from voluntary workouts, added fuel to the speculation. Still, Cardinals general manager Monti Ossenfort said in August that the team had no interest in moving him.
That stance has become harder to hold. Arizona’s 2-5 start, along with the decision to send Marvin Harrison Jr. to Houston, changed the conversation. ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler has since described a Sweat trade as fairly likely before the deadline.
Sunday’s overtime win in Dallas, which moved Arizona to 3-5, could complicate matters. It also gave the Cowboys, another reported suitor, a close look at Sweat in action. One win does not erase the reality that the Cardinals have already begun moving veterans.
The price tag matters, too. Trading Sweat would leave Arizona with about $18.3 million in dead money in 2027, so any deal would need to bring back enough value to justify that hit. A high-end Day 2 pick has been described as the kind of return that would make the move worthwhile.
If the 49ers get involved seriously, there is an extra layer here: Arizona would be sending a premium pass rusher to the team that sits atop the division, then dealing with him twice a year. That is not a small decision.
Still, if San Francisco is willing to pay a little extra to ease the discomfort of a division trade, Arizona may find that the best offer it gets is also the hardest one to accept.
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