TALL SPEAKERS AND SIX SACKS
How Judon is changing the Pats
FOXBORO — Step through the gates underneath the Gillette Stadium lighthouse. Hang a left inside the long, dark tunnel that runs underneath the stands. A few paces down, turn left and swing open a gray door that leads into the Patriots’ locker room. Inside one of the first lockers to the right sits a boombox, long and red. It belongs to Brandon Bolden. The boombox has greeted visitors with an earful for years, a longtime staple of the locker room and a connection to teams past.
What’s new lies a dozen steps further. Down near the opposite entrance, past Matthew Slater’s locker, Julian Edelman’s old post and a row of offensive linemen sit two speakers. Like their owner, they are fresh, loud and unmistakable. Those are Matt Judon’s.
The Patriots’ star outside linebacker, the highest-paid defender in franchise history, is off to the hottest start for a pass rusher in the Bill Belichick era. Some games, he’s notching two sacks, such as last week in Houston. In others, he’s the only Patriot applying pressure, like sacking Tom Brady once, hitting him another time and hurrying Brady once more during a close loss to the Bucs.
Judon and his speakers have been rare constants for a bizarro Patriots team that can’t win at home or stop turning the ball over. If the Pats are to upset Dallas this week and harass Pro Bowl quarterback Dak Prescott and return to .500, Judon must be the starting point.
They’ll just need to settle on the right music first.
“We got some similar tastes, but people be on me more about switching my music because they be liking that South stuff, and I’m kicking that Detroit stuff,” said Judon, a Michigan native. “They’re not hip yet. It’s all right.”
Judon introduced his speakers during training camp, after observing most of his new teammates wore headphones and kept to themselves during OTAs and minicamp. There was nothing communal about this shared, sacred space. But quickly, that changed.
“Now, we’re kind of on the same vibe,” Judon said in September. “It sets the mood for practice. It sets the mood for practice and the intensity for the day.”
Judon says he takes requests, from fellow linebackers Josh Uche and Ja’Whaun Bentley to defensive linemen Davon Godchaux and Lawrence Guy and offensive players, too. Tunes range from R&B to some country, but rap usually prevails. Godchaux often presses him for more variety.
“Matt, he’s coming with some hits, but I tell him all the time, everybody don’t want to hear all that rap music all the time. It’s pretty good, though,” the Pats’ starting nose tackle said. “You kind of need that. You don’t know what guys go through at home, so you come in, play some smooth hits.”
Godchaux, an R&B enthusiast, boasted Thursday he’s created the best playlist in the league.
Music means more to him than sound, just as the locker room means more than a place to sit and stretch. It’s a home away from home.
What Judon has provided is a soundtrack for the Patriots’ safe space, and their season. “We all, as men coming into the locker room, we’ve got a lot of stuff going on at home . ... But you come in the locker room, and to me, that’s my space just to get away from everything and focus on what I’ve gotta do and be myself,” Godchaux said. “Outside, I’m myself, too, but that’s my time just to focus on me and my brothers in the locker room. And I can get away from the kids and the house and be here and just be locked in.” Locked in is exactly how the Pats must operate this week. They’re 2-3. The Cowboys will be rare road favorites to visit Foxboro on Sunday. Dallas coach Mike McCarthy says they’ve consciously prepared to locate Judon before every snap and anticipate the matchups Bill Belichick will foist upon them through his best player.
“He’s clearly the most disruptive player in their front, without a doubt,” McCarthy said. “His numbers speak for themselves.”
Those numbers are as follows: 6.5 sacks, 11 QB hits, 20 tackles and one fumble recovery. How is Judon doing this?
“I think I put in the time,” he said. “I think I’m a smart player. I think as well as myself, just the guys in that locker room. It’s really not me. I’m making the plays and all that stuff but ... the coaches, they’re making it kind of easy on me just giving me hints, giving me tips, just giving me everything I kind of need. And then some of my other teammates.”
Among those teammates is Dont’a Hightower, the onetime face of the Pats’ linebacking corps. Hightower is slowly returning to form this year, posting five tackles and one hurry against the Texans. Those pedestrian numbers were a season-best for the 31-year-old, who’s ceded the spotlight to Judon and receded into the background, even referring to himself as “the trash man” earlier this week. Hightower used to study Judon quietly from afar, and hear about how this No. 99 in Baltimore was impacting games. It might be from a close friend, former Ravens linebacker C.J. Mosley, or even his own coaches. In his last game against the Patriots, Judon grabbed three tackles and a sack.
“We’ve played him a handful of times in the past couple of years, so coach (Belichick) would always have something to say about him or Josh (McDaniels),” Hightower said. “So really just looking at his style of play and mentality ... you can definitely see the way that he plays, and the way he prepares and how confident he is in his mentality. It shows up.”
On film, in the locker room, and now, through his teammates.