Belichick shares insight on Judon’s 2023 training camp hold-in originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
Training camp was a busy time for Bill Belichick. Not only did the former New England Patriots head coach have to get his team ready for the season, but he also dealt with disgruntled players and re-negotiated contracts as the de facto general manager.
Many of those players held out until they received their desired contract, but the 2020 NFL collective bargaining agreement required teams to fine players $50,000 per day for training camp absences. That has resulted in players reporting to camp but being limited or non-participants in practice, otherwise known as “holding in.”
With several players across the league in the midst of “hold-ins,” Belichick was asked on ESPN’s The Pat McAfee Show to explain how he handled these situations over the years. The six-time Super Bowl champion used ex-Pats linebacker Matthew Judon’s 2023 hold-in as an example.
“Judon did this last year. He came to training camp and effectively didn’t practice, but Matt was going to play last year and so he worked and trained hard on his own until we were able to resolve the contract,” Belichick said. “My position was, we’re not going to negotiate with you if you’re not working and you’re not here, so if you leave then that’s a really bad precedent. …
“So come here, work hard, we’ll talk to you, let’s see if we can make it work. What we did with Matt is something that we did with (Rob) Gronkowski, we did it with Julian (Edelman), where if there was a gap between where they were and where they thought they should make and if we thought that was reasonable, then we’d put it in incentives.”
Belichick and the Patriots raised Judon’s guaranteed money from $2 million to $14 million. The four-time Pro Bowler played four games before suffering a season-ending bicep injury.
“The market was around 20 (million), he was somewhere around 15. I forget the exact numbers. We gave him incentives to call it 19,”…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/belichick-shares-insight-judons-2023-220050924.html
Author : NBC Sports Boston
Publish date : 2024-08-19 22:00:50
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