FOXBOROUGH – On Wednesday night, the Patriots traded their top pass rusher, Matthew Judon, to the Atlanta Falcons in exchange for a third-round pick.
Twenty-four hours later, his former teammates still had the pressure on the Eagles’ quarterbacks, sacking them five times at Gillette Stadium. It was just a preseason game and the Eagles were resting a number of regulars, but it was still an encouraging development for the Patriots after the Judon news.
“As you can see, there’s a ‘next man up’ mentality,” Keion White said. “Obviously, we’re going to miss (Judon). He was a tremendous rusher. He definitely brought a lot of experience. But he’s obviously going to open doors for some guys. It’s about taking advantage of the opportunity when it comes.”
The second-year lineman was one of the pass rushers who recorded a sack against Kenny Pickett, as were Deatrich Wise and Joshua Uche, who is expected to fill Judon’s void alongside Anfernee Jennings. Asked about Thursday’s performance, Jerod Mayo added that the Patriots’ front line was also able to generate “a good amount of pass rush” against the Eagles’ starters in joint practice on Tuesday, and not just out-pass the substitutes in the game.
Judon’s departure is significant, though. In his 38 games with the Patriots, the four-time Pro Bowler recorded 32 sacks, the most on his team. And beyond his performance on the field, Wise says the locker room will miss Judon’s influence behind the scenes.
“When you lose players, when people get released or traded, it always impacts us,” Wise said. “We go through training camps, we go through seasons, we go through a lot of activities that build an emotional bond. Losing a guy like that, who became a brother, is always going to impact the locker room in different ways.”
It remains to be seen what impact the Judon transfer will have. Players didn’t seem surprised – he was embroiled in a very public contract dispute – but the veteran was popular and a flood of farewell posts on social media reflected that.
While the Patriots know that replacing Judon won’t be a one-person job, Uche is the current player with the most sacks in a season, and he was really good in the home stretch in 2022, recording 11.5 sacks.
“I have to step up,” Uche said. “I have to improve my game and do everything I can to help the team win.”
Aside from this season’s targets, a look at the updated rankings shows that the Patriots no longer have an elite pass rusher. At least not one with a Pro Bowl season to their name. However, Mayo doesn’t see that as a major obstacle and pointed to the history books as proof.
“We haven’t had a top forward in years — Chandler Jones, the Judons of this world — but we’ve been able to create a pass rush through our stunts and plays and game planning,” Mayo said. “It’s not going to be one person. It’s hard to sit here and say one person can replace Matthew Judon, both on the field and off the field. But I think we have a good group that’s ready to fill those shoes.”
Judon has had the same booth in the Patriots’ locker room for the past four seasons. After Thursday’s 14-13 loss, it was completely empty. It’s a prime spot on the edge of a wall of lockers with empty space to the right, but no one has moved in yet.
“Those are pretty big shoes to fill,” White said. “Pro Bowler. He’s out, (Christian) Barmore is out, all those things combined. We’ve got big shoes to fill. But we have the mentality that it’s next guy up, and the next guys have to be ready — myself included.”
