Patriots training camp takeaways: Judon addresses contract standoff on Day 1

Patriots training camp takeaways: Judon addresses contract standoff on Day 1 originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

FOXBORO – Matthew Judon has been nothing short of masterful in his contract impasse so far.

I’ve seen ‘em all over 28 seasons: Lawyer to Law, Vince to Adam, Randy to Logan, Wes to Steph to Deion to Seymour to Thomas Edward Patrick Brady.

Sense of humor is the first casualty. Then a thinly-veiled (or open) bitterness toward the team for taking advantage of them. A little bit of withholding services, sometimes. Then, in the end, they either get what they want or they get the gate.

You might get a caustic press conference. Or an “ask Mr. Kraft.”

Nobody’s done it like Judon has. Matter-of-fact. Realistic. Transparent that he’s hurt and a little jealous (even though he says he doesn’t begrudge others getting their dough). And open about the fact that while he’s not psyched, he’s got no choice but to play.

“Honestly, it’s tough going into the last year of the deal,” Judon said. “You kind of look at everybody around the league and in the building, and you see them getting deals done and worked out, and it’s tough to not be envious or jealous and stuff like that.

“But I have to focus on myself. I’m happy for those guys. As much as everybody wants to see me stay around here for a long time, it’s really not up to me. You have to ask those guys who are making those decisions.”

It’s a little unseemly for Judon to point out the pay bumps so many of his teammates got this offseason. The biggest ones – Mike Onwenu’s, Christian Barmore’s, Rhamondre Stevenson’s, Kyle Dugger’s – went to guys who were picked in the sixth, second, fourth, and second rounds respectively. This is the big-money, second-contract for all of them.

Onwenu made about $5.5 million in his first four years before getting his $57 million deal in March. Judon’s made $66 million so far.

Be that as it may, Judon – who’s in line to make a max of $7.5 million this year and has nothing guaranteed until the first week of the season – is the 27th-highest edge rusher in terms of APY on his current deal. And he’s better than the 27th-best edge rusher in the league.

Will Judon play? Answering that question, Judon showed he gets a concept that’s eluded generations of athletes.

“I got to, honestly,” he said. “I signed the deal. My signature is on it. Would I like to? No. Do I think that’s my value? No. But again, that’s not up to me.”

Judon, who retweeted a fan’s trade proposal that had Judon going to the Niners, was asked if he wants to be dealt.

“Do I want to be traded? Hell no,” Judon answered.  “I don’t think nobody wants to be traded. Honestly, I don’t run my Twitter, bro.

“It ain’t up to me,” he continued. “You only can control what you can control. It is so much stuff that goes on in our life day-to-day that we have to respond to. If I’m traded, that’s not up to me. I’m responding to all the variables in my life, as a dad, as a son, as a brother, as an uncle and as a football player. God blessed me with a lot of talents and a lot of attributes and a lot of charisma and all that stuff, but that’s one thing that I don’t get to control. So if I go to San Francisco, or I’ve seen trades to Atlanta, Detroit, all that stuff — the stuff y’all see, I see, as well. But I just don’t buy into it. Once they tell me I’m gone, that’s when I’m gone.”

For now, Judon is here and on the field. That’s probably the way it will progress given Judon’s reasonable approach to being disgruntled. And eventually he’ll get a bump. But it is an interesting hurdle for the Patriots’ new regime to deal with.

Head coach Jerod Mayo empowered his players to be themselves. He got a nine-minute rant on the first day of camp from one of his best players. And it’s not even Mayo’s jurisdiction. Salary cap and contracts are the domain of personnel chief Eliot Wolf. And save for some fuzzy, feel-good national interviews after the draft, Wolf’s been silent and out of sight.

Judon’s impasse – and the contract irritation of Davon Godchaux – won’t short-circuit the season. But how the team handles it will say something about how this regime operates when things get a little messy.

This being the first day of camp, the Patriots were in the so-called “ramp-up” period of camp. It’s basically an extension of minicamp with minimal contact. The team will be in pads beginning on Monday. So on a sprinkly Wednesday with temperatures in the mid-70s, the team began practice at 11 with dynamic stretching before getting into positional drills.

The more competitive parts of practice with 7-on-7 and 11-on-11 began around 11:50 and the team headed for the conditioning hill at 12:27 p.m.

Mayo said before practice he would “float” and that’s what he did especially during positional work. He began with the edge rushers and grabbed a bag to whack guys as they came off the edge on a kick-block drill. His second stop was the offensive line then he went to the linebackers where Dont’a Hightower, who absolutely looks like he could play a few snaps, demonstrated a footwork drill. After a check-in with strength coach (and brother) Deron Mayo, the head coach went to the defensive line drills where owner Robert Kraft was closely watching. It was unusual to see Kraft so close to a group during a drill.

Whether it was just that the team has more coaches than it did during Bill Belichick’s tenure or there were more scouts and personnel people on the field, it just seemed there were more people on the field than we’re used to seeing.

The aforementioned Judon and Davon Godchaux, who also is dissatisfied with his 2024 pay, were both taking part in drills and team work.

One of the nice early plays for the offense came when Jacoby Brissett hit free agent tight end Austin Hooper down the seam for a diving pickup of about 15 yards.

That was followed soon after by a deep throw down the right sideline from rookie Drake Maye to wideout Jalen Reagor who one-handed the throw about 45 yards downfield and scooted into the end zone. Maye followed that with a well-placed throw to rookie Ja’Lynn Polk which hit Polk’s hands in traffic but fell incomplete.

It was interesting to see how much work Maye got with presumed offensive starters, a sign that the competition between him and Brissett will give the rookie every chance to show his ability and develop quickly.

There’s still a lot of juggling at wideout and on the offensive line so it’s hard to pin down exactly who’s up first. Calvin Anderson was first up at right tackle most of the day with rookie Caedan Wallace following.

The outside corner opposite Christian Gonzalez was often Alex Austin. Marcus Jones got a lot of work at slot corner.

Bailey Zappe, who was on a field adjacent to Maye and Brissett, split reps with rookie Joe Milton when they broke into team drills.