The Case Against Eliot Wolf

[Real fan 02]

He's average. Completely average after 14 non-winter games.

I know. Your right there. Like QB and coach.. kicker was a position we were spoiled with.. from vineteri to gostowski...

 

[Real fan 02]

Saw that too rub eyes.

Did that say Zapp in green?...

 

[Real fan 02]

He's got his worst career FG% right now.

I remember we never used to talk about kickers... other than it's GOOD!!! Now we have to hope for successful extra points..

 

[RobertWeathers]

Good stats! Also add in that they had games where they actually blew opponents out. This team couldn't blow out a candle.

Yep. There were beaten by better teams with better offenses. The D was suspect.

 

[Real fan 02]

Yep. There were beaten by better teams with better offenses. The D was suspect.

Agreed. This is the most confusing defense I've ever seen last few seasons.. you have peppers, Dugger, gonzo, Barmore. Why is it teams can do anything they want against them? I can't understand it. Take away something!

 

[PatsFan2]

Alex Van Pelt knows Jonathan Kraft was upset with Patriots' play calling

Patriots President Jonathan Kraft was shown on TV during the Patriots' loss on Sunday appearing to tell his father, owner Robert Kraft, that the “play calling is terrible.”

www.nbcsports.com

So management is watching AVP under the microscope and Mayo through rose colored glasses. Yeah I get it Krafts.

 

[Real fan 02]

So management is watching AVP under the microscope and Mayo through rose colored glasses. Yeah I get it Krafts.

AVP shouldn't be touched!!

 

[PatsFan2]

AVP shouldn't be touched!!

Jonathan Kraft says hold my beer.

 

[PatsFan2]

Did that say Zapp in green?...

 

[Real fan 02]

Jonathan Kraft says hold my beer.

Well he had the play sheet in his hands he probably told mayo want to call..

 

[mike_usagisan]

I think we should get rid of Wolf and Mayo at the same time and hire a pair of HC and GMs who are on the same page from the start. If we get rid of one and not the other, it never works well.

 

[Real fan 02]

I think we should get rid of Wolf and Mayo at the same time and hire a pair of HC and GMs who are on the same page from the start. If we get rid of one and not the other, it never works well.

Agreed. As bad as we want change ownership won't do it. If anything they are going to ask Mayo to tweak his staff.

 

[upstater1]

I think there is a solid data-based case to dismiss Eliot Wolf.
I know it's early in his GM tenure, and there may be some longer-term strategy behind the really questionable handling of offseason spending on OL and WR.

But here are the facts.
He's not entirely in his first year with the Patriots.
Eliot Wolf was a consultant in scouting in 2020-2021, then Director of Scouting in 2022-2023, and then GM in 2024.
So, while Bill was the official GM, Eliot was charged with providing player recommendations and influencing his final decisions on free agency and the draft.
Let's look at the results.

Red is underperformed based on the acquisition cost, green is overperformed.
No "underperforms" for fourth round draft on, but you'd like to see one hit a year at least from that group.

2022 Draft
Cole Strange
Tyquan Thornton
Marcus Jones
Jack Jones
Pierre Strong
Bailey Zappe
Kevin Harris
Sam Roberts
Chasen Hinds
Andrew Stueber

2022 Free Agency
DaVante Parker
Mack Wilson
Raekwon McMillan
DaMarcus Mitchell
Jabrill Peppers

2022 Key Departures
Jarrett Stidham
Shaq Mason
Ted Karras

2023 Draft
Christian Gonzalez
Keion White
Marte Mapu
Jake Andrews
Chad Ryland
Sidy Sow
Atonio Mafi
Kayshon Boutte
Bryce Barringer
Demario Douglas
Ameer Speed
Isaiah Bolden

2023 Free Agency
Ezekiel Elliot
JuJu Smith Schuster
Mike Gesicki
Tyrone Wheatley Jr
Riley Reiff
Calvin Anderson

2023 Key Departures
Pierre Strong
Jakobi Meyers
Johnnu Smith
Nick Folk

2024 Draft
Drake Maye
Ja'Lynn Polk
Caedan Wallace
Layden Robinson
Javon Baker
Marcellas Dial
Joe Milton
Jaheim Bell

2024 Free Agency
Jacoby Brissett
Antonio Gibson
JaMycal Hasty
Austin Hooper
Chukwama Okorafor
Nick Leverett
Michael Jordan
Christian Elliss
Marco Wilson
Dell Pettus
JaLinn Hawkins
Joey Slye

2024 Key Departures
DaVante Parker
JuJu Smith Schuster
Mike Gesicki
Trent Brown
Lawrence Guy
Matthew Judon
Chad Ryland

Seven hits - including Drake Maye, which was a complete layup.
Sixteen misses. More if you include mistakes of omission.
You can debate - well, I really think it's eight hits. Or you can't count over-drafting a kicker in the fourth as a miss. Not replacing Lawrence Guy was really a miss. No penalties assessed for the contract decisions on Dugg
Plenty of debate possible.
However, it's a LOT more misses than hits.

While the offense has been terrible, most of us question whether it's the roster more than the coaches. Complete lack of talent across the OL and WR roster.
And that's on Wolf.
The decisions in 2024 were terrible, and the personnel decisions in which he had influence under Bill were terrible.
This draft - too early to evaluate - but signs that all they got was the #3 overall pick.

I would immediately replace Eliot Wolf.

I would put Cole Strange, Keion White, Marte Mapu, Jake Andrews as clear Belichick picks.

Map and Andrews are both Senior Bowl guys. While White is someone they wanted in the late 1st round. Cole Strange is obvious.

The others, including Tyquan, I'm not sure about. What Callahan wrote about JuJu and speed and YAC as being metrics stuff from the personnel people tells me that they may have had a hand in Tyquan as well.

 

[dliverey44]

It's tough to really make a compelling positive endorsement of him. Feel like the absolute best you can do is "too soon to judge".

On the FA side, they're sitting on a comical amount of cap space this year. There's really only 3 rationales I can see for that:

1) Wolf and staff thought these players were/are good enough and there wasn't a need to spend money to improve
2) Kraft wouldn't allow more spending
3) Wolf and staff felt that even with a bad team it was best to use this as a "bridge" year and the long term payoff would be better to spend in future years

If it's #1, fire everyone. I find it hard to believe though. If it's #2, there's only so much any GM will be able to do here. If it's #3 and that was explained to the Krafts and ok'd by them, it's hard to turn around and fire him for it. If he tells you it's going to be a rough year and then hopefully turned around later, it's borderline senile to turn around and fire him because year 1 was rough.

I tend to think #3 was the most likely plan. STILL, they could have made a few decent margin signings. They could have drafted a single good player after Maye. And OP highlighted, it's not like he was a part of an operation that was killing it before he got the official designation to make decisions.


End of the day, whether it's Mayo or Wolf or whatever, I just think the entire operation should be replaced. The only argument I can make to keep any of them is that "1 year is too soon to judge", and that's not a strong argument. There's really no sign I can point to of Wolf or Mayo actually having promise in their roles.

I think that #2 had a lot to do with it as well. BB was still on the books and I doubt that Kraft wanted to dole out that much more money. Just a feeling

 

[Huckleberry1]

I would put Cole Strange, Keion White, Marte Mapu, Jake Andrews as clear Belichick picks.

Map and Andrews are both Senior Bowl guys. While White is someone they wanted in the late 1st round. Cole Strange is obvious.

The others, including Tyquan, I'm not sure about. What Callahan wrote about JuJu and speed and YAC as being metrics stuff from the personnel people tells me that they may have had a hand in Tyquan as well.

This is ridiculous. Belichick made the picks, they are all Belichick’s.

 

[mike_usagisan]

Agreed. As bad as we want change ownership won't do it. If anything they are going to ask Mayo to tweak his staff.

That's my expectation.

 

[borg]

I think we should get rid of Wolf and Mayo at the same time and hire a pair of HC and GMs who are on the same page from the start. If we get rid of one and not the other, it never works well.

 

[mike_usagisan]

This is ridiculous. Belichick made the picks, they are all Belichick’s.

Yes. But unless Wolf was hired from outside (narrator: "He wasn't") then he was involved with the picks. He has no other body of work to justify now being in charge of personnel.

 

[upstater1]

This is ridiculous. Belichick made the picks, they are all Belichick’s.

Let's do this again.

1. Kraft: things have to change, Bill has to collaborate.

2. Callahan says Belichick wanted to retain Jakobi but the personnel people wanted JuJu.

No matter how many times you want to deny it, and I know the Belichick haters do this repeatedly, Kraft said things were going to change in 2020.

There's also a lot more evidence than this, and it's been gone over by reporters as well, including wanting to change from Mac and wanting to draft others.

You do dewny it, but that's denying a lot of evidence and facts,

 

[Sciz]

It’s hilarious how this thread is the exact opposite from this one almost 4 years ago. Back then, he deserved all the credit for 2020. Now, he deserves all the blame for 2022-2023. He wasn’t in charge for any of that time period.

Why can’t we just acknowledge that he had some uncertain role that we can’t properly evaluate because none of the final decisions were his?

OT: The Case for Eliot Wolf to be Elevated to General Manager in Front Office

We have a talented front office consultant where it seems to make sense to elevate him into at least what Nick Caserio was doing, if there is a concern that he's too young to be outright GM: 1. Eliot Wolf consulted for the Pats last year, was Assistant GM on the recent Browns revival, and...

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