Some Patriots news and notes on this Monday:
Judon Situation Gets Heated
The Boston Sports Journal’s Greg Bedard provided some insight on New England Patriots linebacker Matthew Judon in a recent podcast at the end of last week and it’s certainly sparked some backlash.
Bedard reported that based on what he’s been told, the two sides continue to be at odds. He also said, if it isn’t resolved, Judon may not be willing to play for the team in 2024 at his current base salary of $6.5 million. He also adds that the same may also be true of Davon Gaudchaux, who continues to be another player with an uncertain contract future.
“What I know is he may be playing nice publicly, and he has, he has said all of the right things,” said Bedard in the episode. “And if you want to believe him, take him at his word, go right ahead, I’m not going to stop you. But what I can tell you is, from the people that I’ve talked to, he is not going to play under his current contract, at least for the Patriots. I can’t talk about anyplace else.”
“That’s my understanding. I don’t know exactly what’s been communicated to the team, but that’s my understanding. You could also put Davon Godchaux in that bucket.”
With Bedard’s report garnering discussion on social media, Judon clearly heard the buzz surrounding him and opted to fire back.
“Before yall get on my ass, I didn’t say that. At all,” wrote Judon. “Don’t let them make me the villain.”
Prior to the last couple of weeks, the tenor of things felt like they were headed in the right direction. Judon was somewhat positive during an interview on WZLK’s The Rich Schertenlieb Show last month when fellow Boston Sports Journal writer Mike Giardi tried to test the waters of where things were at with his negotiations. Giardi also asked the veteran if he was going to “hold in” similar to last year, which Judon did before the club eventually gave him a bump in pay.
Judon denied that would be the case, and that he planned on simply letting the process run its course. He also called potentially sitting out “trash,” which is going to make it all that more interesting to see how things play out.
“Uh, right now, I’m just gonna get ready to play,” he told Giardi. “And you know, you kind of don’t – you kind of keep throwing tantrums, tantrums, tantrums, and then you don’t come out there and do what you’re supposed to do? It kind of gets old real fast, you know?”
“I ain’t really trying to do that. I’m just trying to come out here and play football, get ready for this upcoming season, and put our defense and ourselves in a position where we can win the most games or be the most effective.”
“So that’s what I’m really on right now. I ain’t worried about holding out, sitting out … kind of protesting. … Because that, last year, that stuff was trash. I ain’t really like that. Like I’m a football player, I don’t want to get into the agency side. So I’m gonna come out here and play some football.”
FoxSports reporter Henry McKenna recently reported that things remain at a stalemate, and it sounds like the negotitions may have regressed. McKenna wrote on X that “the Patriots have made an offer,” but added, “they are not currently close to agreeing to a new deal.”
That contradicts what Judon said last month when he told Giardi, “We ain’t that far apart, you feel me?” in regard to his contract.
However, if the gap has suddenly increased, either something changed on his end in terms of what he’s now seeking, or the Patriots pulled back from where they were. Only they know where things are truly currently at.
What Will the Patriots Do With Judon?
For now, the club certainly has a tough decision to make. Bedard believes that giving him a bump in pay for this season does make sense, especially considering that he feels the Patriots are going to need to lean on their defense this season.
“So, the question gets into, ‘What do you want to do with Matthew Judon?’ Do you want to extend him?” said Bedard. “Do you want to give him a short-term raise? Would you rather trade him to a contender or somebody who wants to pay him? All those options, I would think, are currently on the table for the Patriots.”
“Here’s where I am right now. I would be in favor, as of this moment, of giving him a bump – $3, $4 million for this year, something like that – to get him to around $10 [million] just because I think he’s a very good player. I think that Jerod Mayo’s going to want to have his defense show out. It’s his baby, just like it was [Bill] Belichick’s, and quite frankly, the defense is going to be the way this team competes. So why would you hurt that, at least in the near term?”
Bedard also went on to say that another possibility would be to move Judon late in camp should another team – potentially a contender – suffer an injury, or if they believe acquiring Judon could improve their pass rush in 2024. Another possibility would be if the same scenarios might hold true around the trade deadline.
In the event the Patriots make a tough decision and opt to move on from Judon, Bedard also suggested last month that Keion White may be the guy they’ll look to should they part ways with Judon, with the possibility of the former second-round pick out of Georgia Tech potentially ending up in the spotlight moving forward.
White, who saw an uptick in playing time after Judon got hurt in Week 4 of last season in Dallas, finished his rookie season with 26 tackles, including a sack, 5 quarterback hits, and three tackles for a loss. He also added three passes defended.
The second-year edge rusher showed some tremendous athleticism during his rookie year, which was definitely one of the things that stood out last season. Even more impressive was White showing some unreal closing speed and explosiveness at various points, along with some incredible tenacity in what little we saw from him.
As a result, it should be interesting to see what he looks like after having a full NFL offseason under his belt.
For now, it remains a key storyline heading into training camp. Judon might be telling people one thing, but it’s going to be tough for him in the coming weeks should he sit out in the event the two sides remain at an impasse when camp eventually kicks off.
Odds and Ends
Nicole Yang of the Boston Globe stepped in for Ben Volin for the newspaper’s Sunday Notes Column and pointed out that there’s apparently a new documentary coming out on former Patriots tight end, Aaron Hernandez. She wrote that Season 1 of FX’s “American Sports Story” will be a 10-episode series reexamining the life of the troubled player, with the first two episodes set to premiere on Tuesday, Sept. 17. The new series is based on the in-depth podcast from the newspaper’s “Gladiator: Aaron Hernandez and Football Inc.” … Mike Reiss had a bit in his Sunday notes column on rookie tight end Jaheim Bell, who is another intriguing player to follow heading into training camp. Reiss spoke with Senior Bowl executive director Jim Nagy telling him that he’s a guy who showed tremendous versatility and compared him to San Francisco’s Deebo Samuel. “He is extremely versatile,” said Nagy. “This isn’t true helmet scouting, but there was some similar usage to him and what they got out of Deebo Samuel when he was [at South Carolina], just in terms of some of the slot and running back versatility. There was some fullback usage in there.” How he’ll compliment Hunter Henry and Austin Hooper should definitely be fun to watch. … In that same column, former Patriots safety Devin McCourty said during a recent appearance on the “Rise and Schein” podcast, that Mayo’s biggest adjustment has just been balancing all the additional duties that come being a head coach. “I think the thing that’s going to be the biggest transition for him, and [where] he’ll continue to grow, is when he said, ‘The amount of stuff I do that has nothing to do with football is crazy,'” said McCourty. “I think every new head coach would tell you the same story. You don’t realize how many things Bill Belichick used to handle and do for 24 years as a head coach, and now you’re thrust into that role.” … While the rookies have some time before they report, veteran receivers KJ Osborn, Tyquan Thornton, JuJu Smith-Schuster, second-year wideout DeMario Douglas, and rookie Ja’Lynn Polk, recently got some work in ahead of camp. That group caught passes with both Jacoby Brissett and Drake Maye in the workout as they continue building chemistry heading into this season. While there are questions about the future of Smith-Schuster and Thornton, it’s still good to see this group so determined to hopefully help this team improve an offense that finished tied at the bottom of the NFL in scoring in 2023.
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Ian Logue is a Seacoast native and owner and senior writer for PatsFans.com, an independent media site covering the New England Patriots and has been running this site in one form or another since 1997.
Bedard. He also broke a story that Javon Baker/WR had pre-draft red flags from several teams due to “flashing” guns at people and “Jail time” etc. Bedard said he got that from other unnamed personnel people on other teams. Yet not one stich of historical new articles mentioned anything of the such back in his time at Florida Central or Alabama. Zero issues. I googled it on many search predicates. And not one other media entity even touched that article to repeat one stich of it…. and not one draft analyst ever mentioned anything negative on Javon Baker. That news… Read more »