If you played for John Harbaugh in Baltimore at any point over the last decade-plus, keep your phone nearby and off silent mode. There’s a good chance you'll be getting a call from an East Rutherford area code sometime soon.
Harbs has spent the better part of his first year with the New York Giants getting the band back together. Isaiah Likely, Patrick Ricard, Ar'Darius Washington, and Jordan Stout are just a few former players who followed him up I-95. Big Blue is also hosting pass rusher Yannick Ngakoue, who spent parts of 2020 and 2024 with Harby, for a workout on Monday.
So when the San Francisco 49ers cut Matt Judon from their practice squad over the weekend, my first thought was pretty simple: Why not go for the set?
Judon spent his first five seasons playing for Harbaugh and made two Pro Bowls in Charm City. San Fran brought him in on Sept. 28 to patch up an injury-riddled defensive front, then let him go just 12 days later when Mykel Williams came off the PUP list. Somebody had to be the odd man out.
Matt Judon could be another low-risk Giants gamble worth taking
Let’s be realistic about what Judon is at this point in his career. He’s 34, hasn't recorded a sack since December 29, 2024, and has managed one tackle on 14 snaps in his lone appearance for the Niners this year. Long gone are those 15.5-sack days in New England back in 2022, but the 72 career sacks and 95 tackles for loss on his résumé are still worth remembering.
But that's not what Big Blue will be looking for -- they need reliable rotation pieces. Brian Burns is out for the year with a torn ACL, and Chauncey Golston is headed to IR. Judon already knows Harbaugh’s ways and what’s expected of him. If he can give them 10 to 15 good snaps and a pressure or two a week, that’s a perfectly fine return on a practice squad flyer.
The thought experiment with Judon unfortunately also ties back to Kayvon Thibodeaux. Five games in, Thibs has zero sacks, one QB hit across 216 snaps, and a 53.5 PFF pass-rush grade that ranks 90th out of 106 qualified pass rushers.
If general manager Joe Schoen decides to move Thibs, he needs depth behind Carter that doesn’t cost the team any more draft capital. Ngakoue and Judon are both available for the price of a phone call, and both come pre-Harbaugh'd.
Worst case, Judon doesn’t have anything left in the tank, and the G-Men cut him in a few weeks. Best case, he boosts the pass rush and makes moving on from Thibs less painful. For a team leading the NFC East with a middling pass rush, that’s not much of a risk at all.
Add us as a preferred source on Google