Matthew Judon has been a beast for the New England Patriots over the course of his time there. After joining the team in 2021, the star linebacker has quietly racked up double-digit assists in the last two seasons. Because of that, the Pats were inclined to rework Judon's contract in order to reward him after a lengthy discussion.

Recently, the Patriots reworked his contract, allowing him to get $14 million, with a chance to add $4 million in incentives. After netting this extension, Matthew Judon said that he was glad that the team decided to give him a rework, even though he “felt” like they didn't need to.

“I haven’t been sad yet,” Judon said. “Me and the guys upstairs got something done as far as my contract. I’m happy. They’re (Patriots) happy. We shook hands. And now we’re playing football. I think it represents that they want to keep me around here or keep me happy,” Judon said. “Or just (it’s) representing that they’ve seen what I did and they appreciate it, for the organization. When you do something like that — honestly, they didn’t have to if we’re being quite frank. They didn’t have to. They didn’t have to budge. They could have said, ‘You signed this. This is what you’re going to do.’ But they helped me out, so I can help the team out.”

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The Patriots have every reason to have Judon around. After failing to crack double-digits during his time with the Ravens, the star linebacker accrued 12.5 sacks in 2021 for New England. Judon followed this up with a monster 2022 season, where he had 15.5 sacks to pace the Patriots. While Judon might think that his team didn't have to do this, it was absolutely the right call for a team looking for a leader on the defense.

Much of the talk around the Patriots are centered around the offense, and rightfully so. Last season, their elite defense was hampered by their offense sputtering around. The Pats are attempting to rectify this by re-hiring former OC Bill O'Brien to lead the offense again. While the new-look New England offense gets their bearings right, Judon and the defense will make sure that they'll be working just fine.