How should the Patriots handle the Judon situation? Scott Pioli offers insight originally appeared in NBC Sports Boston
Matthew Judon is back on the field at New England Patriots training camp after a difficult few days in which he had lively discussions with team leaders Monday and I skipped training completely Tuesday.
However, the star pass-rusher still doesn’t have the new contract he’s seeking, and order won’t be fully restored until the Patriots give him a new deal, let him play out the final year of his contract or explore a trade. if Judon refuses to play on his current contract.
Judon’s public expression of his contractual discontent caused a sideshow at Patriots campbut longtime NFL executive and former Patriots vice president of player personnel Scott Pioli doesn’t begrudge the 31-year-old for making his desires known.
“People will say, ‘Well, that was a negative reaction.’ That was a human reaction,” Pioli said in an exclusive interview with Patriots Insider Tom E. Curran.
Pioli has dealt with several complicated contract negotiations during his tenure with the Patriots, including with Deion Branch. The fan-favorite wide receiver held out in the summer of 2006 while seeking a new deal, and New England ended up trading him to the Seattle Seahawks after failing to find common financial ground.
“(In) contract negotiations, two sides see things differently and you have to have different responsibilities,” Pioli told Curran. “You talk about the Deion Branch thing: we had a responsibility to 52 other players, five practice squad players, this whole organization, the fan base, ownership, where we had to do what we believed was the right thing in the best interest. from The Team.”
Current Patriots executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf owes the same thing to this organization, Pioli says. So while Judon understandably wants more than the $6.5 million in base salary he’s expected to earn in 2024, Wolf and the front office need to weigh how much they want to offer a nine-year veteran who turns 32 this month and accumulated 28 sacks in total. in 2021 and 2022, but missed 13 games in 2023 with a torn biceps.
Ultimately, it comes down to paying players based on projected future performance rather than past performance, says Pioli.
“What (Judon) believes – and what he should believe – he will be, may not be what the team believes he will be in the future,” Pioli added. “And this is something very important: when you get into the business of paying for past performance, in the end, it will be a loser’s game.
“It also establishes a culture where your players know, and part of the culture of getting things out is making sure that everyone — not just players, (but) scouts, coaches, everyone — is performing, not just now, but for the future. And Is it part of your culture or not.”
Our Phil Perry reported Both Judon and the Patriots are willing to work out a deal, so it’s possible the two sides can find common ground before the regular season. But Wolf and Co. have to strike a delicate balance between caring for a respected veteran while also not overpaying them based on their past accomplishments.
