We finally got another trade to happen in the NFL offseason. The New England Patriots sent pass rusher Matthew Judon to the Atlanta Falcons for a 2025 third-round picks, and it’s largely a win for both sides.
Sources: The #Patriots are trading pass-rusher Matthew Judon to the #Falcons, landing Atlanta a standout on defense. It’s a third-rounder going back.
At long last, New England resolves its situation with Judon with a trade. pic.twitter.com/VbehQTeu1X
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) August 14, 2024
Let’s start with the team acquiring Judon’s services. The Atlanta Falcons have loaded up offensively, signing QB Kirk Cousins and WR Darnell Mooney to upgrade their offense that already had young stars like WR Drake London, TE Kyle Pitts and RB Bijan Robinson. However, that defense still had a lot of question marks, especially on the edge. With DT Grady Jarrett still coming back from an ACL tear last year, the pass rush was going to take a long time to come around. On the edge, the Falcons were lifted by the random assortment of Lorenzo Carter, Arnold Ebiketie and James Smith-Williams. On top of that, rookie EDGE Bralen Trice, who was supposed to play a major role in the pass rush group, injured his knee and had to be placed on IR, ending his season.
The Falcons desperately needed a boost to their pass rush, and Judon makes so much sense for this team. He’s your traditional 3-4 SAM defender, who is strong on the edge against the run, and can be a good pass rusher to design games and stunts around. With Raheem Morris coming from Los Angeles, he now has a guy on the edge who can be a denter on stunts and a looper, coming around and finishing off pressures. While it still doesn’t fully excuse drafting Michael Penix Jr at 8 overall, the Falcons still were able to get their QB of the future and a star pass rusher in the offseason. So, everything comes out chalk I guess?
From New England’s perspective, look man. This team is rebuilding and they know it. Judon wasn’t going to get the big money contract he was looking for from a Pats team that isn’t in the same phase as Judon, and recouping a third round pick for a 32-year old EDGE rusher who missed the last part of 2023 with an injury is good business. While Judon is a star pass rusher, I think New England should be fine when it comes to stopping the run. The way they play their defense, Anfernee Jennings and Keion White on the edges should make them still good up front against the run. However, where they’ll lose a lot of production is in pass rush. Not only will they not have Judon, but DT Christian Barmore is gone for the foreseeable future due to blood clots, turning down their pass rush by a lot. They’ll really need EDGE Josh Uche to consistently be a threat on passing downs, as well as White winning when he moves to the interior in obvious passing situations. It’s not the most ideal situation for New England, however. That pass rush is going to be really hard to come by, making it more difficult on the secondary to stop offenses. It’ll be difficult on first year defensive coordinator DeMarcus Covington to scheme up pass rush without that ace in Judon, but if any team can still win defensively, it’s New England.
Overall, the trade is a win for both sides: Atlanta gets their much needed pass rush boost and New England gets another pick to kickstart the rebuild.
