Things got tense at Patriots training camp this week when Matthew Judon appeared visibly upset at leadership amid negotiations for a contract extension.
Judon was present at the start of training camp and told reporters he wanted to remain in New England when he denied rumors of wanting a trade out of Foxboro, Mass. The 32-year-old also said that while he did not prefer it, he would play in the final year of his contract that holds a $6.5 million base salary but no guaranteed money.
However, things appeared to change Monday when the star pass rusher publicly argued with head coach Jerod Mayo and executives Matt Groh and Eliot Wolf before walking out of practice. On the same day, a preview for an episode of the “Shut Up Marc” podcast showed Judon voicing his frustrations.
“I love football. I don’t love the business of football,” Judon told Marc Lewis. “I don’t want to be the villain. I don’t want to be the bad guy, but it’s like, shoot, bro, like help me out. We got the most cap (space) in the league right now, bro. And then with that, they don’t even get the money. What the hell y’all doing with it? Y’all literally just not using it. Those guys have a tough decision. It’s hard to know who to give the money to, when to give the money, how much. It’s a lot of stuff that go along with that. But I wrote out my own contract and sent it to them. They just ain’t respond yet.”
It’s not clear when Judon’s podcast appearance was recorded. But the note about writing out the details of his own contract follows the trend of Judon being unhappy to play out the final year of his deal given the lack of guarantees he likely is seeking in negotiations.
Davon Godchaux also is another disgruntled Patriot who wants a new contract, but his agent Drew Rosehenhaus spoke with Groh and Eliot at training camp Monday hinting that another New England player will receive an extension. That might have added to Judon’s frustrations as Mayo deals with his first huge adversity in his first season.
Stay tuned to NESN.com for more Judon updates at Patriots training camp.
