It looks as if with every passing day, the New England Patriots are asserting some form of extension to one in every of their gamers. However, even with the newly put in entrance workplace handing out extensions like they’re Halloween sweet, Matt Judon has been on the surface wanting on the varied paydays. And that — together with some current social media exercise — has now invited questions relating to his future in Foxborough.
The star move rusher is getting into the ultimate yr of the four-year, $56 million contract he signed with the membership in 2021. Judon skipped on out a number of the voluntary parts of New England’s offseason program however was current for obligatory minicamp. The two sides did undergo the same saga final offseason and the 2 sides finally had been in a position to modify his contract to siphon cash from 2024 into 2023. This time round, borrowing from future years will not be an possibility, so it will look like an extension could be mandatory for these two sides to coexist in 2024. But is that going to occur?
On Wednesday, Judon has some attention-grabbing social media exercise that would counsel that his time with the Patriots is nearing its finish. An X consumer tagged Judon in a post imploring New England to “pay the man what he wants.” Judon then responded to the post and solid much more doubt of that wishful end result saying, “Ion think that’s about to happen.”
Not lengthy after that alternate, Judon posted a GIF that folk have surmised he is suggesting he is about to depart the Patriots.
Given that the Patriots will not be anticipated to be aggressive in this coming yr and Judon, who’s coming off a season-ending biceps harm, is about to enter his age-32 season, he might not match the timeline for this crew to logically hand him an extension. So, may a commerce be on the horizon if the Patriots do decide towards giving him an extension? If so, listed here are a trio of logical touchdown spots for the stud move rusher.
There’s some familiarity right here with new Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald serving because the linebackers coach of the Ravens from 2018-2020. Judon was in Baltimore for the primary 5 years of his profession and the ultimate three had been spent with Macdonald teaching his place group. In that point, Judon additionally was named to two Pro Bowls. While Seattle probably may use extra of an off-ball linebacker, Judon could be a worthwhile pursuit to pair with Boye Mafe and Leonard Williams alongside the defensive position. One roadblock right here may very well be Seattle’s capability to hand Judon the extension he seeks, nonetheless, because the crew solely has $8.4 million in cap area, per Over The Cap.
Similar to Seattle, cash may very well be the important thing situation with this potential marriage because the Falcons have simply $3.4 million in obtainable cap area, however the want is there for them to get their books in order. Atlanta went all in this offseason boosting its offense, headlined by the signing of Kirk Cousins in free company. While that aspect of the ball must be a lot improved than in seasons previous, the Falcons may nonetheless use somebody to strain the quarterback if they need to critically contend in the NFC.
This could be the kind of commerce that sends shockwaves all through the NFL and alerts that the Lions will not be messing round. Detroit led the league in strain price final season, however there’s an argument to be made that they may very well be even higher with Judon reverse of Aidan Hutchinson. The Lions are coming off their most profitable season in a long time and at the moment are making an attempt to take one other leap in 2024, so an all-in commerce for Judon would make sense and will vastly assist their newly improved secondary bounce again after a tough season in 2023. This touchdown spot would additionally put Judon in a scenario the place he may critically contend for a Super Bowl. The Lions do have $34.5 million in cap area, so an extension is probably not out of the query right here both.