Patriots OLB Matthew Judon is leading Pro Bowl voting

The New England Patriots’ defense is playing at an elite level again, and their star pass rusher, Matthew Judon, is a big reason for that.  Judon has already set a career high in sacks in a season and he still has six games left to play.

The veteran pass rusher signed with the Patriots before the 2021 season and was arguably their most high-profile free agency get.  He got right to work and at the time set a personal career best with 12.5 sacks.

He made a Pro Bowl and decided to one up himself from last year.  Not only is Judon a leading Pro Bowl vote-getter, he’s also already eclipsed his 2021 sack total.  He’s got 13.0 sacks in 2022 and is leading the NFL.  Not only that, according to NFL.com he and Cowboys’ stud Micah Parsons are the two leading vote getters among outside linebackers.

Parsons has about 63,000 votes and Judon has 61,000 votes.  Furthermore, Judon is right on pace for 20.0 sacks this year, which is an insane number that very few pass rushers have ever hit in their careers.

There are some favorable matchups as well for Judon to keep racking up the sacks.  The Patriots will face teams like the Bengals, Raiders, and Dolphins.  All three teams are struggling a bit along their offensive lines, so that might be a perfect chance for the veteran pass rusher to get after the quarterback.

For the future, I’d say he is well within reason to ask for a raise.  The initial contract he signed is worth $54.5 million, and that total value number ranks 19th among edge rushers.  His average annual value of $13.625 million ranks 25th in the league among his position mates.

Obviously he is outperforming his current contract, and given that the Patriots are set to have a good bit of cap space, there is no reason why they shouldn’t give him a raise if his agency asked for one.

Overall, the Matthew Judon signing has proven to be worth every penny.