The New England Patriots are "lightly shopping" linebacker Matthew Judon, per ESPN's Jeff Darlington, who provided the following information on NFL Live.
"I can tell you when it comes to Judon, we are at a point where the Patriots are at least listening to trade offers. They are lightly shopping him, making clear to the NFL, 'hey, we're hear to listen if you do want to trade for him.' But I can tell you also they really haven't gotten much in terms of the type of interest that would really consummate any kind of deal.
"I can also tell you this, the Patriots have not upped or re-offered anything to Judon since their initial offer before training camp. So it doesn't feel necessarily like the level of urgency is here to get him back to practice. To me, there's nothing imminent. Quite frankly, outside of a team stepping up and making a trade offer, it really does feel like he will likely have to play on this $6.5 million deal this season."
The 6'3", 270-pound Judon is a nine-year veteran out of Grand Valley State. The 31-year-old amassed 28 sacks over the 2021 and 2022 seasons and has 66.5 total over a career that includes four Pro Bowl appearances. Unfortunately, a torn right biceps ended Judon's season after just four weeks last year.
Judon has one season left on his current deal at a $6.5 million base salary ($14,675,850 cap number, per Over the Cap). He's gone on the record to reporters that he believes his market value is higher than that base figure.
"We have a market set by the highest guy, and then everyone falls in line until the next guy is up to breaks that contract. I was injured all last season, so that's not really where my market is. But I don't think it's $6.5 [million]," Judon said (h/t Matt Geagan of WBZ News).
There's no denying Judon's tremendous impact on the Patriots' defense. The 2021 Pats finished second in scoring defense largely because of his efforts. The 2022 Patriots amassed 54 total sacks, finished a respectable 11th in scoring defense and ended fourth in yards allowed per play.
At this point, it appears that Judon is going to play out his deal with the Patriots, even though he isn't in agreement with its value relative to what he brings to the table (which, to be fair, is accurate given his tremendous production).
ESPN's Jeremy Fowler provided some notes on where things have been on the contract front.
"New England made a contract offer to Judon this summer, which Judon did not accept, sources told Fowler.
"Judon had said on a recent podcast that he wrote out his own proposal to the Patriots and was awaiting a response. He also said he would play on his contract if necessary, but believed it didn't reflect his value."
So it's a holding pattern for Judon and the Patriots regarding the future right now. But in the present, all sides are getting ready for Week 1 against the Cincinnati Bengals on Sept. 8.
