The New England Patriots and Matthew Judon have spent much of this preseason at odds on a new contract extension, but it looks like the two sides will finally be parting ways.
According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the Patriots are trading Judon to the Atlanta Falcons in exchange for a third round pick.
Following a similar situation last summer, New England accelerated part of Judon’s contract ahead of last season, giving him a boost after Judon was present during training camp, but chose not to participate. That move left the veteran slated to make $6.5 million in base salary for the 2024 season.
Most analysts believed that the Patriots would again give him a bump in pay, getting him somewhere in the ballpark of similar players at his position. However, the negotiations ended up in a stalemate with the veteran, who will be 32 years old on Thursday. Now it looks like the two sides are moving on.
How they’ll replace his production remains to be seen. The club currently has Keion White, along with Anfernee Jennings, and Joshua Uche among names the Patriots may now need to turn to following Judon’s departure.
Greg Bedard of the Boston Sports Journal actually suggested a couple of months ago in a podcast that he felt White could indeed potentially be Judon‘s replacement.
“He’s almost immediately from the get-go in OTAs, seeing him out there, him standing up, the two-point stance, it’s extremely exciting and his development, and again, it’s not pads, but you could see the impact,” said Bedard. “And just his physicality, I just love the idea of him standing up. When he was drafted, I had a hard time wrapping my head around exactly where he was going to play because he was a tweener and he was basically like Deatrich Wise’s sort of understudy and then he gained more and more playing time last year. But I think his athletic ability is his strength and standing him up and using him like that can make him really impactful and I’m really excited to see what he can do.”
“And I also think the offshoot of that is, well, if Keion White’s now an edge and they already have Anfernee Jennings and Josh Uche, and if Matthew Judon is going to have an issue with his contract, does that make Matthew Judon expendable? I think that’s a very real possibility at this point.”
The Patriots are currently preparing for their second exhibition game of 2024 against the Philadelphia Eagles on Thursday night at Gillette Stadium.
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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.
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