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Patriots coachMike Vrabel has focused on upgrading the defense.

In his first season as New England’s head coach, Mike Vrabel has placed a high priority on rebuilding the Patriots defense. In free agency, especially, the Patriots went all-in on defensive upgrades, making defensive tackle Milton Williams, fresh off a Super Bowl championship with the Philadelphia Eagles, the highest paid player in Patriots history with a four-year, $104 million free agent contract.

Then Vrabel and football director Elliot Wolf made former Detroit Lions cornerback Carlton Davis III their second-most expensive signing of 2025, handing the 28-year-old a three-year deal worth $60 million, including incentive clauses.

Reunion With Rusher Who Got 32 Sacks in New England

But there remains work to do on a defense that sacked opposing quarterbacks just 28 times all season last year, fewer than any other team in the NFL. The Patriots were second-to-last in quarterback hits with 66. So what can New England do to prevent opposing QBs in 2025 from doing pretty much whatever they want behind the line of scrimmage?

According to Bleacher Report writer Kurt Benkert — briefly a Green Bay Packers reserve quarterback himself — the answer may lie with a four-time Pro Bowl defensive end who was signed to the Patriots in 2021 by then-coach and general manager Bill Belichick.

Matthew Judon, formerly of the Baltimore Ravens, earned two of those Pro Bowl bids with New England in the 2021 and 2022 seasons. He recorded a career high 12 1/2 sacks in his first season with New England, and beat that personal best the following year with 15 1/2.

But everything fell apart for Judon in 2023, missing all but four games with a torn biceps muscle. His absence was undoubtedly a factor in the Patriots dismal 4-13 record that season, culminating in the firing of Belichick by franchise owner Robert Kraft. Judon accrued four sacks in the four games he played.

When the season was over he approached the Patriots about a contract extension but got nowhere. In frustration, Judon got into what were described as “animated discussions” with then-coach Jerod Mayo and other Patriots brass at the first full-pads practice of 2024 training camp.

The Patriots then traded Judon to the Atlanta Falcons. But even though Judon claimed that he would be carrying out a “vendetta” in the 2024 season, he scraped together just 5 1/2 sacks — his lowest total in a full season since his rookie year of 2016.

Judon May Accept Team-Friendly Contract

Could he now come back to the Patriots on a team-friendly contract?

“I think they could use a little more edge help. Matt Judon got paid a little bit. He can go back on a team-friendly deal,” said Benkert on the Bleacher Report NFL Daily podcast. “Vrabel’s got the culture back. Matt Judon liked the culture before. …Bring Matt Judon back to the Patriots.”

Brett Alper of the Chat Sports Patriots Today podcast echoed Benkert’s recommendation, though cautioning that the reunion would be “awkward.”

“I would love to bring Red Sleeves back,” Alper said, referring to Judon’s habit of wearing a shirt with bright red sleeves underneath his uniform. “He was one of my favorite players. I would do it on a one-year deal, but he would have to probably apologize to Elliot Wolf.”

Judon is a free agent after now having concluded the four-year, $54.5 million contract he signed with the Patriots in 2021. Given his injury and drop-off in performance in Atlanta even when healthy, the Patriots could probably bring Judon back on an economical deal for a short period of time — with the possibility of high upside for New England’s defense.

Jonathan Vankin JONATHAN VANKIN is an award-winning journalist and writer who now covers baseball and other sports for Heavy.com. He twice won New England Press Association awards for sports feature writing. He was a sports editor and writer at The Daily Yomiuri in Tokyo, Japan, covering Japan Pro Baseball, boxing, sumo and other sports. More about Jonathan Vankin

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