Rob Gronkowski Rips Patriots’ Matthew Judon, Coach Bill Belichick Over ‘Hold-In’

Former New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski didn’t really like the fact that Matthew Judon chose not to join his teammates at training camp and head coach Bill Belichick approved it.

The star pass rusher did arrive at the facility for the beginning of training camp, but was spotted working on his conditioning on a separate field. Judon claims the team is fine with this decision.

Well, we have people speculating that Judon is engaged in a hold-in because he wants a better contract with the team.

Gronk went on Rob Ninkovich’s podcast to share a similar sentiment.

“Matthew Judon holding out right now, at training camp and not participating in drills is one of the weirdest things I’ve ever heard. That’s silly.”

Judon is on a four-year deal worth $56 million. He inked it in 2021 and the new deal may have affected his performance. Judon played his best football in 2022 and 2023 and now he wants a big deal.

Mike Giardi from Boston Sports Journal shared his thoughts on Judon’s contract situation. He claims that the star player negotiated a new deal with the team, but Judon didn’t say much about it.

“I’m happy to be here, man,” he said. “I’m definitely not going to talk about contracts with y’all. Y’all some snitches. But I’m happy that I’m here. I’m happy that I’m a Patriot. And then wherever that goes, it goes. The market changes every day. We’ve seen it the first day of training camp, a whole bunch of people got paid, the market changes every day. But I will not talk about contracts.”

Gronkowski didn’t think that Belichick would let Judon do this

Gronk is not a fan of this attitude.

“Like, I don’t know, just go hold out. You don’t want to get fined but you’re asking for more money? But you don’t want to get fined. Well, if you’re asking for more money be a boss and tell them to cancel the fines out when you get the new deal or something. I don’t know, it’s a weird situation.”

Ninkovich couldn’t agree more.

“It’s so weird that Bill would let that happen.”

Yes, did Belichick really allow this?

Gronk was a Patriot for many years and he knows Belichick really well.

“Bill always said, you’re all in or you’re all out. That’s why I said just go home then, if you’re gonna hold out. That’s why it’s weird. Is he losing control or something? I don’t know.”

Judon may be a bad influence for younger players. His approach may confuse his younger teammates and the situation could take a bad turn for him.

“This is the problem,” Ninkovich said. “When you have a leader, or a potential leader, that is disgruntled that these young guys are looking at, and he doesn’t have good leadership skills and he doesn’t want to show up, doesn’t ant to take reps. That affects what these young guys see.”