Matthew Judon loves football, but he doesn’t love the business side of football. Unfortunately, it’s all business right now between Judon and the New England Patriots.
The four-time Pro Bowl linebacker is in the final year of his contract, and he’s looking for a new deal. According to Judon, he wrote out a contract proposal himself and sent it to the Patriots.
But he has yet to hear back from the team.
“I love football. I don’t love the business of football. Like I said, I don’t want to be the villain. I don’t want to be the bad guy, but it’s like shoot, bro, help me out,” Judon said when appearing on the “Shut Up Marc Podcast.” “We got the most cap in the league right now, bro. And then with that, what the hell are ya’ll doing with it? Like ya’ll are literally just not using it.
“Those guys have a tough decision. It’s hard for them. It’s hard to know who to give the money to, when to give the money to. Where? How much? There’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 responded yet.”
Judon didn’t participate at Monday’s training camp practice, but cameras caught him having an animated conversation with coach Jerod Mayo before leaving the field.
The Patriots have made extending in-house free agents a priority in the offseason, but they have yet to agree on a deal with Judon. They signed Christian Barmore, Hunter Henry, Mike Onwenu, Kendrick Bourne, Rhamondre Stevenson, Anfernee Jennings and Jabrill Peppers to extensions.
FOX Sports’ Henry McKenna reported in early July that the Patriots had extended an offer to Judon, but the two sides weren’t close to agreeing on a deal.
Judon noted that he doesn’t do most of the talking when it comes to negotiations, but he did write his own contract proposal.
“I don’t do most of the talking to them. They let me play football. I got an agent, but that one thing I did do. My agent was like, ‘Bro, who wrote this for you?’ I was like, ‘Me, bro. I wrote this,'” said Judon.