We lastly bought 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 either 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. Nevertheless, that protection nonetheless had lots 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 come back round. On the sting, the Falcons have 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 significant function 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 is usually 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 is usually 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 have been in a position to get their QB of the long run and a star move rusher within the offseason. So, every thing comes out chalk I assume?
From New England’s perspective, look man. This workforce is rebuilding they usually comprehend it. Judon wasn’t going to get the massive cash contract he was on the lookout for from a Pats workforce that isn’t in the identical part as Judon, and recouping a 3rd spherical choose for a 32-year outdated EDGE rusher who missed the final a part of 2023 with an harm is sweet enterprise. Whereas Judon is a star move rusher, I feel New England must be nice with regards to stopping the run. The best way they play their protection, Anfernee Jennings and Keion White on the sides ought to make them nonetheless good up entrance in opposition to the run. Nevertheless, the place they’ll lose lots of manufacturing is in move rush. Not solely will they not have Judon, however DT Christian Barmore is gone for the foreseeable future attributable to blood clots, turning down their move rush by quite a bit. They’ll really want EDGE Josh Uche to persistently be a menace on passing downs, in addition to White profitable when he strikes to the inside in apparent passing conditions. It’s not essentially the most superb state of affairs for New England, nevertheless. That move rush goes to be actually exhausting to come back by, making it tougher 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 either side: Atlanta will get their a lot wanted move rush increase and New England will get one other choose to kickstart the rebuild.
