Matthew Judon

73 career sacks across 10 seasons — built mostly between Baltimore and New England.

Judon is a four-time Pro Bowler whose career splits cleanly into two acts: five Baltimore years where he never cleared 10 sacks but produced 5 straight seasons of pressure-heavy defensive snaps, then a Patriots peak (28 sacks in 2021-2022) that made him the highest-paid edge rusher in franchise history. The biceps tear in 2023 (4 games, 4 sacks) is the line that splits the chart in half — he hasn't been the same rusher since.

15.5 sacks in 2022 — the most by a Patriot since Andre Tippett in the 1980s.

Judon's 2022 season (15.5 sacks, 28 QB hits) ranked 5th in the NFL and made him the headline of the Belichick-era defense's final great year. Pair that with 2021's 12.5 sacks and the two-year Patriots window produced 28 sacks — more than any New England edge over a 2-year stretch since the franchise switched to a 4-3 base.

BAL years: 35.5 sacks in 5 seasons. NE years: 32.0 sacks in 3 seasons — same volume in 2 fewer years.

In Baltimore he was a rotational pass-rusher in a deep front — never asked to carry a defense, never hit double-digit sacks. New England moved him to a true edge role and his per-season sack rate jumped 50%. The Falcons year was a soft landing; the 2025 split between Miami and Buffalo (just 23 snaps with MIA, the rest as a Bills depth piece) has produced no sacks at all.

185 career QB hits — among only a handful of active EDGE rushers in the 75/175 club (75+ sacks, 175+ hits).

Judon's 271 career tackles, 73 sacks, 185 QB hits, 98 TFLs, 10 forced fumbles form a rare full-stack profile. The QB-hit volume — 185 — is the tell: he didn't just convert pressures to sacks, he generated more hits per game than almost any edge of his era. Among defenders entering the league in 2016 or later, that QB-hit total puts him in the same neighborhood as Bosa, Garrett, and Crosby, even with a lost 2023.

From 15.5 sacks in 2022 to 0 sacks in 2025 — the steepest 3-year drop of any Pro Bowl EDGE.

The fall is the story. 2022: 15.5 sacks. 2023: torn biceps in Week 4, season over after 4 games. 2024: traded to Atlanta, 5.5 sacks across a full season. 2025: cut by ATL, signed with Miami (23 snaps, 0 sacks), waived, claimed by Buffalo as a depth piece.

The 4-time Pro Bowler who was the NFL's 5th-best sack producer 3 years ago is now a healthy-scratch rotational player. That's not a slow decline — it's a hard cliff, started by one biceps injury.

4 Pro Bowls but 0 playoff sacks since 2020 — Judon's postseason resume never matched his regular-season volume.

Judon's four Pro Bowls (2019, 2020, 2021, 2022) bracket the Patriots' decline — he made the AFC roster in NE's 2021 wild-card year and the 2022 .500 season, but neither team won a playoff game with him on the field. Combined with three Ravens playoff exits before 2021, Judon's career playoff line is 0-4 in his last 4 postseason appearances.

The regular-season case for Canton-adjacent EDGE production is strong; the postseason case is empty.