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This is never an easy topic to dive into in the sports world – a player’s weight.
It’s not easy for the reporter to ask about, and players don’t like talking about it
And who can blame the player? When it comes to weight, that is a kind of personal issue.
But the problem is, while somebody’s weight can be considered a private matter, and nobody else’s business, when you evaluating players, if weight is considered something that is perhaps impacting performance, it’s on the table for sports coverage.
New Jets nose tackle, T’Vondre Sweat, is a player whose weight and conditioning have been scrutinized from his days at the University of Texas through his time with the Tennessee Titans.
Sweat was reportedly close to 390 pounds his last season at Texas. He got down to 366 at the combine, which is current listed weight on the Jets roster. Is he 366 now, I have no idea. So often with NFL rosters you see on the internet, they go with the weight of a guy when he entered the league, and rarely update it.
So the only weight we can do with is 366, but who knows if that is his current weight? That weight is from the 2024 combine.
So as far as 366, let’s go back to what Sweat said to the Nashville media right after getting drafted by the Titans in 2024, about that weight:
“I’m going to go down more. I could play good at 366. My coach told me, Coach Bo (Davis at Texas), this past season said, ‘Yeah you played great, but you could have played better at 355 or 350,’ so I’m just going to try to chop it down day by day to get to that and if I go to 355 or 350, most likely I’m going to be a Hall of Famer.”
So he even made the argument himself that 6-4, 350-55, he’d be even better than 6-4, 366, or in the 380s like his last year at Texas.
So what is his take on what weight he’d like to play at with the Jets?
Can’t answer that because he refused to speak to the media in the spring. That is a not a complaint or shot at Sweat. I’m just telling you he refused to speak in the spring.
I asked his D-Line coach, Karl Dunbar, about an ideal weight, and if 366 is a good spot, or if he would be even better playing at a lower weight?
“I think the thing is being in shape,” Dunbar said. “Everybody has a different body style, and his has worked for him, and I love big men. I like big men who can move.”
What kind of shape will Sweat be back in after six weeks away – the gap between the end of the off-season program and the start of training camp?
By the way, that gap the NFL has between the end of the off-season and the start of training camp is kind of counterintuitive and counterproductive.
In other sports, camp goes right into the season, like basketball, baseball, and hockey, so the team conditioning work carries over into the season.
So, the NFL, the gold standard of leagues, has a dubious off-season schedule. There is no doubt about it.
The bottom line is we (the public and media) have no idea what Sweat weighs, in the spring, or now, while he’s likely down in his home state of Texas.
But it’s fair to say that after what he said after getting picked by Tennessee, the draft is probably the most salient point on this issue.
350, 355 would probably be perfect for him.
He moved well, close to 390 at Texas in 2023, so can you imagine how he could move at 350-55?
July 13, 2026
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