Patriots trade Matthew Judon to the Falcons for shocking draft capital

The standoff between the New England Patriots and Matthew Judon has been an ongoing story that most teams would prefer not to define their offseason. Despite the countless new contracts Eliot Wolf has handed out since becoming the team's executive vice president of player personnel earlier this year, keeping Judon in Foxboro beyond this upcoming season was clearly not a priority.

It became a dramatic situation with Judon taking to social media to air his grievances and even having animated conversations with coaching staff during a practice a few weeks ago, which led to him remaining absent until the following week.

Contract talks had reportedly picked back up over the past week, as Judon was seemingly in better spirits and paticipating more during practice and the Patriots' preseason opener.

But it was all to no avail, as NFL insider Ian Rapoport reported on Wednesday evening that the four-time Pro Bowl pass rusher was being traded to the Atlanta Falcons for a third-round pick in the 2025 draft.

It was a shocking development given the most recent updates suggesting an extension was closer than it had been all offseason. But that appears not to be the case, and the Patriots couldn't agree on a salary that would please the team and Judon, hence sending him to a pass-rush-needy team like the Falcons.

What a Matthew Judon trade means for the Patriots in 2024

Although the trade could be considered a good move, as the Patriots received a top 100 pick in next year's draft for a 32-year-old pass rusher coming off a season-ending injury, this puts a lot of pressure on the young defense to make up for the loss of production resulting from Judon's absence.

On top of that, they'll likely be without Christian Barmore as well since he is dealing with health issues that will probably force him to miss the entire 2024 season.

While building a young roster and developing players through the draft is a great idea, moving on from a proven talent like Judon is a big hit to their plan of maintaining a dominant defense. He became the face of the defensive line and instilled fear in their opponents.

That might not be the case anymore, which doesn't bode well for their chances this upcoming season.

The only other positive to really come out of this trade is the cap savings, although the Patriots were already among the teams with the most remaining in the bucket ahead of the regular season.

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