FOXBOROUGH - Matthew Judon doesn’t want you to get it twisted. If it were up to him, he’d be a member of the New England Patriots for the rest of his career. Of course, there’s a lot that goes into making that a reality, including a contract adjustment more commensurate with his performance over the past two seasons, not that the 30-year-old was willing to fully go there with the media following Friday’s training camp practice.
“I’m happy to be here, man,” he said. “I’m definitely not going to talk about contracts with y’all. Y’all some snitches. But I’m happy that I’m here. I’m happy that I’m a Patriot. And then wherever that goes, it goes. The market changes every day. We’ve seen it the first day of training camp, a whole bunch of people got paid, the market changes every day. But I will not talk about contracts.”
As I reported yesterday, the Patriots and Judon’s people had conversations this spring about adjusting his current deal, but a resolution wasn’t found. That led us to wonder if Judon was conducting a hold-in at camp, but after limited participation on the first two days, Judon was slightly more involved Friday, including getting a handful of reps in 11-on-11 to end practice. When he was asked what had led him to spend far more time conditioning than playing football during Wednesday/Thursday, Judon insisted it was all part of the plan.
“Me and the guys talked about it, and we both felt like ‘Alright, we can do that for two days,’” he said. “Then we can ease into things. I’m in my eighth year. I think y’all know what I do on Sundays, occasionally Saturdays, Thursdays, maybe Mondays. And we’ve seen that. We got 90 players out here right now. And so that was kind of in the talks. We’ve got 90 players. Let’s wait a little bit.”
There is some sense to that. Judon has faded in each of his first two seasons with the Patriots, perhaps because of his overall workload (900 snaps in 2021, 858 in 2022). But the contract questions won’t disappear from this conversation, even if this turns out not to be a hold-in. Why? Take Trey Hendrickson, for example. The Bengals just rewarded their best pass rusher by extending his deal for an extra season, guaranteeing 21 million dollars in total in new money. Hendrickson is younger (28) than Judon but not as productive in the sack department (28 for Judon, 22 for Hendrickson).
“I actually know Trey personally, and I’m excited for him,” Judon said. “I don’t think he’s had a bad year yet. And so for him to get paid and for his organization to realize like, ‘we want to keep this guy around here for longer,’ that’s good for him as a friend and as a brother to me. I’m happy for Trey.”
Hard not to read between the lines and sense that Judon believes the Patriots should do him a similar solid. But again, this isn’t a one-way street.
“Everything has made it to where I feel like I want to stay here for the rest of my career,” he said. “But if that’s not in the cards, that’s not in the cards. I felt like that when I was a rookie. I felt like that my fifth year, but that wasn’t in the cards for me. I don’t get to choose that. I just get to tell y’all how I feel.”
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Speaking of participating more in practice, Rhamondre Stevenson was significantly more involved than he was Thursday, where he, like Judon, spent some time on the lower practice fields working on conditioning. Was there a physical issue or reason for the running back to not be involved with the team drills?
“No reason. I was just down at the lower field yesterday.”
Alrighty then. On to the next. Stevenson was asked about the trend we’ve seen in the league the last few years, with his position group being devalued at contract time. Any comment about that?
“No, not right now,” he said. “I’m just focused on the game of football. It’s training camp season. I’m not really focused on that. I’m just focused on getting better and playing the game.”
Fair, but with only two years left on his rookie deal, Stevenson could soon find himself in a similar boat. So was there any chance he was involved in the well-publicized Zoom call between running backs as they tried to brainstorm for answers on how to reverse this movement?
“No comment,” said Stevenson.
Safe to say Stevenson didn’t want to draw the ire of his coach and get the dreaded tap on the shoulder from one of Belichick’s assistants telling him Bill would like a word. Even when it came to the possible addition of Dalvin Cook, a player the Pats have expressed interest in.
Said Stevenson: “I’m totally confident in our room right now, but if we get another one, I’m with that too. I’m just playing the game right now. I’m not worried about who we sign or nothing like that.”
Stevenson preferred to be seen and not heard last year, to excellent results. You can’t blame him for sticking with what works.
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There’s a lot expected of first-round pick Christian Gonzalez. The Pats are not yet in pads, but what we’ve seen so far from the cornerback is enough to put a smile on your face. He’s been smooth, he’s been confident, and he’s been in the middle of the action, starting at one of the outside spots and acquitting himself well.
“It’s been fun,” he said Friday. “Being able to come in and learn and compete… learn from all the guys in my position room, just bond with them, and learn how they play and just try and catch-up.”
Gonzalez has done a good job of that, in particular having a nice give-and-take with JuJu Smith-Schuster at various points Thursday and again Friday.
“Gotta have confidence being out there,’ Gonzalez said. “It’s all about going out there and having fun.”
He and his fellow defensive backs are having that through the earliest stages of camp. They are clearly winning far more battles than they’ve lost. We’ll see if that carries over once the pads come on, but Gonzalez feels like a nice fit in this system, where they’ll let him play to his leverage and highlight a man-to-man friendly skillset.
“It’s real helpful, real fun to be able to come out here with older safeties and the people in my room… to understand that there’s help in different places, wherever it needs to be.”
