Rob Gronkowski Blasts Matthew Judon, Bill Belichick Over Contract Stance
New England Patriots star pass rusher Matthew Judon has rarely participated during training camp since it opened last week.
Judon routinely has warmed up with his teammates at the start of practice sessions before heading off to a side field to work on his conditioning. But that’s been about it. The soon-to-be 31-year-old has taken only a few reps in competitive team drills.
Judon insists his very limited participation is part of a plan between him and the Patriots to steadily increase his workload, especially with the start of the regular season still over a month away. But his actions scream more that he’s unhappy with his contract.
Whatever is going on between Judon and the Patriots, it’s not all adding up to someone who has intimate knowledge of the inner workings of the organization.
“Matthew Judon holding out right now at training camp and not participating in drills is one of the weirdest things I’ve ever heard,” Patriots legendary tight end Rob Gronkowski recently said to former teammate Rob Ninkovich on the “Dan & Ninko” podcast, as transcribed by The Boston Globe’s Ben Volin.
Despite what Judon has said, it is perceived the four-time Pro Bowler is performing a “hold-in.” He’s underpaid among the elite edge rushers in the NFL, and this way he can make a statement by not truly participating in practice while avoiding the $50,000 fine per day of holding out of training camp.
“Just go hold out. You don’t want to get fined, but you’re asking for more money, but you don’t want to get fined?”
Rob Gronkowski on Matthew Judon
The tactic isn’t one Gronkowski and Ninkovich agree with, and Gronkowski didn’t hold back from calling out Judon.
“That’s silly,” Gronkowski said. “I don’t know. Just go hold out. You don’t want to get fined, but you’re asking for more money, but you don’t want to get fined? Well, if you’re asking for more money, then be a boss and ask them to cancel the fines out when you get a new deal or something. I don’t know. It’s a weird situation, it’s silly.”
Judon can’t play things out exactly how Gronkowski hopes he would, though. The new collective bargaining agreement prevents teams from rescinding holdout fines during training camp. That has seen more and more players in recent years show up to camp without actually practicing.
It wasn’t just Judon that drew the ire of Gronkowski, though. He also questioned Bill Belichick’s handling of the situation.
“Bill letting that happen, that is weird,” Gronkowski said. “He always says, ‘You’re either all in, or you’re all out.’ Is he losing control or something? I don’t know.”
All of it, from Judon’s approach to Belichick’s response, is unsettling to Ninkovich.
“It’s a bad situation,” Ninkovich said, per Volin. “It’s a weird situation because this is the first time that Bill has ever had that on his team.”
What Ninkovich said isn’t entirely true, though. It was theorized that Stephon Gilmore exercised a “hold-in” at the start of the 2021 season when he worked his way back from a partially torn quad he suffered the year prior. The Patriots left Gilmore on the physically unable to perform list to start the season before trading the 2019 Defensive Player of the Year to the Carolina Panthers for a measly sixth-round draft pick. Gilmore didn’t play a single game for the Patriots that season.
It doesn’t seem at all that Judon will meet the same end result. But it’s clear that both Gronkowski and Ninkovich feel Judon needs to go about his business differently.
And it’s never a good thing to be called out by two former Patriots as accomplished as Gronkowski and Ninkovich.