The New England Patriots traded former pass rusher Matthew Judon to the Atlanta Falcons, and his recent quote will leave Pats fans ripping their hair out. After the Patriots and Judon were unable to come to some sort of contract agreement, they shipped him to the Atlanta Falcons.
The Falcons traded for Matthew Judon and also signed free agent safety Justin Simmons, so they are clearly trying to load up a bit on defense. Well, the departure of Judon was tough for some Patriots fans to stomach, as he was clearly their best pass rusher, but the trade made sense. They got a third-round pick out of the deal and are in a rebuild.
Matthew Judon is currently set to be a free agent at the end of the 2024 NFL Season, so the rebuilding Patriots would have likely not re-signed the aging player, who is coming off of a season-ending injury.
Well, Judon seems to have changed his tune a bit. Check out what he recently had to say:
Regarding his contract status, Matt Judon said "The Atlanta Falcons don't know me as a football player. They know my history. So I can't demand something I haven't worked for."
— Joe Patrick (@japatrick200) August 19, 2024
Said he's just working to put his best foot forward at this point. Doesn't appear to be a sticking…
Wow, quite the change of tune from Judon, who probably did not want to play for the New England Patriots in 2024, and I would not have blamed him. The Falcons have stability at QB and quite the underrated roster. They're also in the NFC South, so the division is not hard. Atlanta feels like a safe bet to win 10 games and earn the division title.
They'd be guaranteed no worse than the fourth seed in the NFC playoffs and at least one home playoff game. For Judon, who has kind of wasted away in New England over the last couple of seasons, this is probably worth not demanding a new contract immediately. I reckon that with Atlanta's very talented defensive line, he can have another strong season.
He racked up 32 sacks in 38 games, so that could put him on pace for about 14 sacks in 2024 with the Falcons if he kept that pace up. New England Patriots fans have to be ripping their hair out after reading these recent comments from Matthew Judon, who was arguably their best player.