Bears Trade Pitch Flips 2nd-Round Pick for 4-Time Pro Bowl Pass Rusher

The Chicago Bears ostensibly need at least one more quality edge rusher to fill out the defense, and one of the league’s best continues grappling with his current team over a new contract.

Matthew Judon and the New England Patriots are struggling to find common ground as the four-time Pro Bowl outside linebacker (2019-22) enters the final season of his four-year $54.5 million contract.

Judon has been beyond a bargain at that price, despite missing 13 games last season with a torn biceps. He will earn only $6.5 million in base salary in 2024, his age-32 campaign and ninth year in the NFL.

Bears general manager Ryan Poles has already taken two big swings ahead of his first two trade deadlines, dealing a second-round pick to the Pittsburgh Steelers for wide receiver Chase Claypool in 2022 and a second-rounder to the Washington Commanders for defensive end Montez Sweat in 2023.

The first was a whiff of epic proportion, while the second landed Chicago a Pro Bowl edge rusher in his prime who led the team in sacks last season despite playing just nine games in a Bears uniform.

Poles has proven he is not risk averse and is willing to make deals of consequence, not just in the cases of Claypool and Sweat but also for wide receivers Keenan Allen and DJ Moore, the latter of whom came over from the Carolina Panthers with the first-round draft pick that eventually became QB Caleb Williams.

The Bears own two second-round picks in 2025, their own and Carolina’s, as well as third-round selection. Ideally, Chicago could persuade the Patriots to let Judon go for a third-rounder, though Poles and company have the capital to go up to the second round if necessary.

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Matthew Judon Has More Current Value to Team Like Bears Than Patriots

Trade value is all about leverage, but there’s also the eye-of-the-beholder element to consider.

New England is bad and will most likely remain bad in the short-term as the organization resets around new head coach Jerod Mayo and first-round quarterback Drake Maye (No. 3 overall pick in 2024). Now a couple years on the wrong side of 30, Judon’s timeline doesn’t fit with the Patriots’.

That reality makes it less likely that New England will offer Judon a long-term contract, or that Judon will choose to return if he hits unrestricted free agency in 2025 — especially if the Patriots continue spurning his requests for a new deal now.

Judon logged double-digit sack totals in both 2021 and 2022, but that kind of production (assuming he can replicate it in 2024) will mean less to a likely non-contender such as the Pats than it would to an up-and-coming roster like the one Chicago has constructed.

The Bears finished second-to-last with 30 sacks last year after posting a league-worst mark of 20 sacks in 2022. Furthermore, they have no proven pocket disruptor outside of Sweat, who is currently sidelined with an undisclosed injury.

Yannick Ngakoue appears to be the best option available in free agency, and he gave Chicago just 4 sacks in 13 games last season in return for a $10.5 million contract.

If the Bears believe in Judon’s durability — not just in 2024, but over the following couple of seasons — he is a viable pre-trade deadline target who is worth a multiyear extension to a defense long bereft of elite pass-rushing capabilities.

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Bears Have Capital to Make Patriots Competitive Offer for Matthew Judon

Kristopher Knox of Bleacher Report on August 12 suggested Chicago offer New England a trade package including a 2025 fifth-round pick and a fourth-rounder in 2026.

A pick that will most likely fall in the mid- or late-second round in 2025 (Chicago’s own selection, not Carolina’s) has a similar value to the two-pick combo Knox suggested, per Over The Cap’s trade calculator, and might be enough immediate incentive to entice the Patriots over other potential offers.

New England has fielded, and will presumably continue to field, several inquiries about Judon ahead of the season and into the year if no deal is made, per a Monday report from ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler.

Judon has posted 165 QB hits, 87 tackles for loss, 66.5 sacks, 14 pass breakups and 9 forced fumbles over the course of his career, per Pro Football Reference.

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