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Andrew Brandt, who was a vice president with the Packers from 1999 to 2008 when Wolf was in the initial years of his full-time career as a scout, starts with a story that further solidified his belief in Wolf's acumen.
"I'm a big fan of Eliot. Every now and then I'd walk by his office and ask him what he was looking at, and one time [in 2006] I remember he said, 'I want to show you someone. We're going to take this kid in the second round tomorrow -- Greg Jennings, a receiver from Western Michigan.' And I was like, 'Really? We're going to take a kid from Western Michigan in the second round?' And Eliot just kept saying he hoped he wouldn't go before then," Brandt relayed.
Then he's showing me the tape and pointing out the body control, the hands, the strength. And he felt there was no question it would transfer to the [NFL]."
"I believed before, during and after [my tenure] in the Packer Way, which in simplest terms is 'no quick fixes, slow and steady, trust your scouting, trust your board and almost mandate that your coaches play young players,'" Brandt said. "So it's draft and develop, and then speaking to my end [as a negotiator], once you identify those core players, get them under extensions way before free agency."
NFL Media draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah said on a conference call last week that the Patriots have previously been "one of the more niche drafting teams in the league where they would catch you off guard a little bit because they were so obsessed with fit and might take a guy two or three rounds before anybody else."
Jeremiah expects that to change in 2024 with Wolf taking a leading role, adding that Wolf came up through a Green Bay system that values versatile offensive linemen and receivers with dynamic yards-after-the-catch ability and added value as kick returners.
Extending your young players before they reach FA would be a nice change atleast