The New England Patriots have paid a number of their own players this offseason, but star edge rusher Matthew Judon has yet to receive the new contract he's been asking for since the new regime of Jerod Mayo and Eliot Wolf have taken over as the team's decision-makers.
Apparently, other teams have been paying attention to Judon's unhappiness, as ESPN's Jeremy Fowler reported that "multiple teams have inquired about trading" for him.
Judon began the offseason playing nice and talking about how he wasn't going to be complaining about his contract. However, Judon arrived to practice weeks ago without pads and was sent out while having animated discussions with Mayo, Wolf and personnel executive Matt Groh. Then, he wasn't in the building at all the next day, and there was a podcast interview released where he called out the team for not responding to his contract offer.
In the days following that, Judon returned to practice, denied a report about the team sending him a new contract offer, took a shot at some Boston radio hosts for calling him out, left another practice and didn't play in the team's preseason game.
While he's stated multiple times that he wants to re-sign in New England and retire with the team, that's seeming less and less likely as time goes on. It feels like he's not in the team's future plans, and if that's the case, they should be looking into trading him and getting something in return even if it hurts the team in 2024.
However, Judon could still be impactful for years to come. He may be turning 32 years old in just days, but he's been very productive since joining the Patriots, recording 133 tackles (33 for a loss), 62 quarterback hits, 32 sacks, four passes defensed, two forced fumbles and two fumbles recovered in 38 games over three seasons.
His injury from last year (a torn biceps) shouldn't slow him down much if at all, and as we saw on the sidelines of the preseason game against the Panthers, he can help coach up some of these younger guys.
It will all come down to what Wolf and Mayo think about how he'll play in the future.
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