FOXBOROUGH -- For some players, NFL preseason games don't mean much at all and when on the field they may try certain things or treat it differently than a regular-season game.
Not Patriots outside linebacker Matt Judon -- he's going to give it his all because he knows everyone is watching.
“With any football game, we’re going to have reporters there,” he said following Tuesday’s in-stadium practice. “Y’all are going to report what y’all see. If I come out there and look sloppy, that’s what y’all are going to report and that’s what y’all should report. Y’all shouldn’t preface it with, ‘Well, but it was preseason.’ So, when I come out here, I have to do my job and I have to perform well. I think everybody on the defense is going to take that mindset and when we come out here, we have to look as a unit, as a team.”
The Patriots signed Judon to a four-year, $56 million deal this offseason and Thursday against Washington will be his first live action with his new team.
“You take every opportunity and you give it your most,” he said. “You don’t want to put bad film out there. It doesn’t matter if it’s preseason, the fifth game of the season, you’re playing a team that’s 0-something, or you guys are 0-something, when you go out there, that film lasts forever. We can pull up film from LT [Lawrence Taylor] or Warren Sapp or any of the greats, and whenever they go out there and that eye in the sky is on, they’re performing.”
Judon figures to play a big role in the Patriots defense this season.