Bill Belichick explains why Patriots made Matt Judon their highest-paid player

Bill Belichick has no qualms about the hefty check paid to Matt Judon. The linebacker is the highest paid Patriot.

Belichick signed Judon away from the Baltimore Ravens in 2021. And since then, Judon bested his career record for quarterback sacks. Plus, he can play the run, which is big in Belichick’s book.

“Judon’s done a great job for us,” Bill Belichick said of Matt Judon. “We made him our highest-paid player, so I don’t think it was a situation where he was some big secret.”

Belichick talked up Judon this week during an interview with The 33rd Team. His contract was mentioned. This year, Judon’s pay is $13.625 million. He’s in the third season of his four-year, $54 million deal he signed in March, 2021. Judon will make $1.1 million more than tight end Hunter Henry.

Belichick told The 33rd that Judon had no Ravens baggage when the Patriots signed him. The cards just fell right for New England.

“He had a lot of production for the Ravens,” Bill Belichick said of Matt Judon. “We’ve lost players like that in the past, too, whether that was [Joe] Thuney going to Kansas City to be the highest-paid lineman or guard or whatever it was. Sometimes you just can’t afford to keep guys because of the structure and just the way it falls. I don’t think there were any issues with Judon, I think he would help any team. It just worked out that we had a good opportunity and financially we were able to compete for him.”

The Ravens selected Judon in the fifth round of the 2016 NFL Draft. He was a small school star from Grand Valley State. And he set the NCAA Division II record for sacks. But in five seasons in Baltimore, he never cracked double digits in sacks. He got close with 9.5 in 2019. So the Patriots didn’t give him all that money because of his pass rush. But since he arrived in Foxboro, Judon has improved each season. He notched 12.5 sacks in 2021, then 15.5 last fall. He was the lone Pro Bowl player for the Patriots.

He also publicly defended Belichick last season when former Patriot Asante Samuel came for the coach on social media. This was back when Lamar Jackson, the Ravens quarterback, was linked to New England. Samuel directed a tweet at Jackson, posting “trust me you don’t want to play for Belichick”

Judon clapped back. “Hush up. It’s different over here,” he tweeted.

So no wonder Belichick continued to gush about his linebacker.

“Jude’s an instinctive player,” Belichick said last November. “He does a good job of getting vision on the ball and also taking the right angle or making the right decision based on where the blocker is, where the ball is, how fast the runner’s going, or what angle he’s at and so forth. Those are football skills that are hard to coach because they happen so fast. It’s just a decision that the player has to make on the field in a split second.”