We lastly acquired one other commerce to occur within the NFL offseason. The New England Patriots despatched move rusher Matthew Judon to the Atlanta Falcons for a 2025 third-round picks, and it’s largely a win for each side.
Sources: The #Patriots are buying and selling pass-rusher Matthew Judon to the #Falcons, touchdown Atlanta a standout on protection. It’s a third-rounder going again.
In the end, New England resolves its state of affairs with Judon with a commerce. pic.twitter.com/VbehQTeu1X
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) August 14, 2024
Let’s begin with the workforce buying Judon’s providers. The Atlanta Falcons have loaded up offensively, signing QB Kirk Cousins and WR Darnell Mooney to improve their offense that already had younger stars like WR Drake London, TE Kyle Pitts and RB Bijan Robinson. Nonetheless, that protection nonetheless had plenty of query marks, particularly on the sting. With DT Grady Jarrett nonetheless getting back from an ACL tear final 12 months, the move rush was going to take a very long time to return round. On the sting, the Falcons had been lifted by the random assortment of Lorenzo Carter, Arnold Ebiketie and James Smith-Williams. On prime of that, rookie EDGE Bralen Trice, who was speculated to play a serious position within the move rush group, injured his knee and needed to be positioned on IR, ending his season.
The Falcons desperately wanted a lift to their move rush, and Judon makes a lot sense for this workforce. He’s your conventional 3-4 SAM defender, who is powerful on the sting in opposition to the run, and generally is a good move rusher to design video games and stunts round. With Raheem Morris coming from Los Angeles, he now has a man on the sting who generally is a denter on stunts and a looper, coming round and ending off pressures. Whereas it nonetheless doesn’t absolutely excuse drafting Michael Penix Jr at 8 general, the Falcons nonetheless had been capable of get their QB of the long run and a star move rusher within the offseason. So, every part comes out chalk I assume?
From New England’s perspective, look man. This workforce is rebuilding they usually realize it. Judon wasn’t going to get the large cash contract he was in search of from a Pats workforce that isn’t in the identical section as Judon, and recouping a 3rd spherical choose for a 32-year outdated EDGE rusher who missed the final a part of 2023 with an harm is nice enterprise. Whereas Judon is a star move rusher, I believe New England needs to be fantastic in the case of stopping the run. The best way they play their protection, Anfernee Jennings and Keion White on the perimeters ought to make them nonetheless good up entrance in opposition to the run. Nonetheless, the place they’ll lose plenty of manufacturing is in move rush. Not solely will they not have Judon, however DT Christian Barmore is gone for the foreseeable future resulting from blood clots, turning down their move rush by rather a lot. They’ll actually need EDGE Josh Uche to persistently be a menace on passing downs, in addition to White successful when he strikes to the inside in apparent passing conditions. It’s not essentially the most superb state of affairs for New England, nonetheless. That move rush goes to be actually laborious to return by, making it harder on the secondary to cease offenses. It’ll be troublesome on first 12 months defensive coordinator DeMarcus Covington to scheme up move rush with out that ace in Judon, but when any workforce can nonetheless win defensively, it’s New England.
General, the commerce is a win for each side: Atlanta will get their a lot wanted move rush enhance and New England will get one other choose to kickstart the rebuild.
