The Case Against Eliot Wolf

[Huckleberry1]

He's a proven liar. Got caught lying on the Dynasty multiple times. He's a liar.

He said things had to change with the draft. What changed? Everyone but you acknowledges this.

And here's the weird thing -- you accuse me of quoting Kraft only when it suits me. What are you doing with Kraft's quote yourself?

You quote Kraft on “ collaboration” claiming it absolutely proves your point, then you completely dismiss him when he says Belichick had absolute control, which everyone knows was the case, when it proves you wrong.

 

[Huckleberry1]

He's a proven liar. Got caught lying on the Dynasty multiple times. He's a liar.

He said things had to change with the draft. What changed? Everyone but you acknowledges this.

And here's the weird thing -- you accuse me of quoting Kraft only when it suits me. What are you doing with Kraft's quote yourself?

Well well, look at this:

The initial surprise was that Blank’s Falcons were the only NFL team interested in Belichick last January. Then the real shocker came. Blank went in a different direction. The Falcons didn’t want the future Hall of Fame coach either.

There was a hold-up that was tough for Blank and company to get past. Belichick wanted to lead the football operations department the way he did for so many years in New England, one of the perks of building a dynasty and becoming the most decorated NFL coach of all time thanks to the six Lombardi Trophies that now reside in Foxboro


Bill Belichick wanted total control.

 

[Huckleberry1]

Belichick also has something even senior executives may envy: total control. “Belichick has a strong alignment with ownership,” says Jed Hughes, vice chairman and global head of the Sports practice at Korn Ferry. “He runs the whole show and is not battling a general manager. He has total control over all decisions and gets a lot of input from people he trusts. One thing that separates him from a lot of people is his decisiveness.”

 

[Huckleberry1]

Some of my Belichick hate:


I have no doubt that Rehbein made a case for taking Brady, but pretending that it wasn’t Belichick who made the decision, when everyone knows he always did what he wanted with picks is really dishonest. Especially when those making that claim are the same people who have claimed Belichick was always responsible for every bad pick, and there were plenty of those for them to ***** about.

 

[Huckleberry1]

Really, at the end of the day, I'm going to believe Kraft, Breer, Callahan.

This is what you said in this thread

 

[Huckleberry1]

He's a proven liar. Got caught lying on the Dynasty multiple times. He's a liar.

And here is also what you said in this thread.

 

[Huckleberry1]

And here is what I have told you on collaboration multiple times.

I remmber Kraft saying they wanted more collaboration, but I never heard anyone say or suggest that Belichick didn’t have final authority. And the only picks I ever heard Belichick credit others for were the Barmore pick, who he attributed to Wolf, and the Tre Nixon pick, Ernie Adams. Overall I think Belichick had final say both good and bad on personnel right up to the very end. As far as the quote from Kraft I would have to see exactly what it said to know whether he was lying or not. He’s certainly not above it.

As far as the Mac Jones pick goes he played for Belichick’s closest ally in the coaching ranks, and he has a long history of taking players from college coaches he’s close to. I have absolutely no idea who else in the organization said what about picking Jones because there has never been any reporting on that. There has been speculation from some, but nothing factual at all.

As far as Wolf goes I think the same thing as I said of Belichick, he’s responsible for this draft, and he was also in charge of their free agency decisions. Whether people agree with what he’s done or not done it’s in him. I don’t think he should be blamed for Belichick’s drafts. And free agency on anecdotal evidence, and I think he should be held accountable for their success or failures on the personnel front once we have results to go on.

As far as Belichick goes I think he’s the GOAT coach and have defended him for years. I would have been fine with him staying as coach, but didn’t believe he should have been allowed to run personnel anymore.



I have acknowledged Kraft’s collaboration comment repeatedly, but collaborating doesn’t mean any of those below him could overrule him, and everyone knows that, including you. And Wolf wasn’t even the guy under Belichick, Groh was, yet you and others skip right over Groh and claim Wolf was responsible for Belichick’s bad decisions.

 

[50-yard-line]

Slye sucks

Nah, he doesn't suck.

But Ryland was cheaper, cost controlled and plain old controlled for 3 more years instead of a 1-year rental.

BIG mistake by the front office (surprise emoji incoming).

 

[50-yard-line]

Ryland is better this year, but he actually had a much worse year when he was here last year than Slye is now. We also had one of the worst special team units in the league and kicker was a big part of that last year.

So were a few of the snaps and holds.

I do agree with you that Ryland had raw talent and we probably should have stuck with him to see how he developed but people generally don't have patience for a bad kicker.

He had some tough luck with bad snaps and bad weather, then put too much pressure on himself and got the yips. Happens. The two performed very equally in camp - keep the kid.

 

[Triumph]

960 receiving yards and 5 TDs with 2 games to go.

73% catch percentage. He would have made a fine Patriot.

Ladd McConkey Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Draft, College | Pro-Football-Reference.com

Checkout the latest stats for Ladd McConkey. Get info about his position, age, height, weight, college, draft, and more on Pro-football-reference.com.

www.pro-football-reference.com

 

[Nunchucks]

960 receiving yards and 5 TDs with 2 games to go.

73% catch percentage. He would have made a fine Patriot.

Ladd McConkey Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Draft, College | Pro-Football-Reference.com

Checkout the latest stats for Ladd McConkey. Get info about his position, age, height, weight, college, draft, and more on Pro-football-reference.com.

www.pro-football-reference.com

I drafted him for my dynasty ff team.

 

[Huckleberry1]

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.

This was a great case……for firing Bill Belichick, not the person two rungs below him.

 

[upstater1]

You quote Kraft on “ collaboration” claiming it absolutely proves your point, then you completely dismiss him when he says Belichick had absolute control, which everyone knows was the case, when it proves you wrong.

So what changed? Why did he say things would change? What changed?

And don't you think you're cherrypicking Kraft's comments?

You're doing the very thing you're accusing me of.

 

[upstater1]

Well well, look at this:

The initial surprise was that Blank’s Falcons were the only NFL team interested in Belichick last January. Then the real shocker came. Blank went in a different direction. The Falcons didn’t want the future Hall of Fame coach either.

There was a hold-up that was tough for Blank and company to get past. Belichick wanted to lead the football operations department the way he did for so many years in New England, one of the perks of building a dynasty and becoming the most decorated NFL coach of all time thanks to the six Lombardi Trophies that now reside in Foxboro


Bill Belichick wanted total control.

Blank said this is not true.

You're making things up.

Others have written news articles that Kraft called and torpedoed Belichick. We've seen the articles.

Ivan, I think you're living in an alternate reality.

 

[Huckleberry1]

Blank said this is not true.

You're making things up.

Others have written news articles that Kraft called and torpedoed Belichick. We've seen the articles.

Ivan, I think you're living in an alternate reality.

I didn’t write the article, Mike Florio wrote it. Since you get to believe Breer and Callahan, I get to believe Florio over Arthur Blank.

 

[Huckleberry1]

So what changed? Why did he say things would change? What changed?

And don't you think you're cherrypicking Kraft's comments?

You're doing the very thing you're accusing me of.

No, unlike you I accept Kraft’s comment on collaboration, but nowhere in the concept of collaboration does it say that the underlings overrule the boss. Whereas you say you believe Kraft for one quote, and call him a liar for the other. Furthermore, despite the fact that Groh was above Wolf, you go out of your way to blame Wolf, but not the two guys above him.

 

[Huckleberry1]

Blank said this is not true.

You're making things up.

Others have written news articles that Kraft called and torpedoed Belichick. We've seen the articles.

Ivan, I think you're living in an alternate reality.

Upstate, you are living in denial. Bill Belichick was in charge, and there is NOTHING anywhere that states that any underlying ever overruled him.

 

[Huckleberry1]

Feel free to demonstrate where anyone ever overruled Belichick? Kraft desperately wanted to keep Brady, and Belichick overruled him. Case closed.

 

[upstater1]

I didn’t write the article, Mike Florio wrote it. Since you get to believe Breer and Callahan, I get to believe Florio over Arthur Blank.

Your hatred of Belichick is out of control.

Blank said these things at a news conference. It's recorded.

Falcons' Blank: Belichick never asked for control

Falcons owner Arthur Blank says the team never offered Bill Belichick the head-coaching job and that Belichick never asked for player personnel control.

www.espn.com

Next thing you'll tell us it was an AI deepfake.

 

[upstater1]

No, unlike you I accept Kraft’s comment on collaboration, but nowhere in the concept of collaboration does it say that the underlings overrule the boss. Whereas you say you believe Kraft for one quote, and call him a liar for the other. Furthermore, despite the fact that Groh was above Wolf, you go out of your way to blame Wolf, but not the two guys above him.

Your answer makes no sense, it's illogical.

Before 2020, Belichick didn't do all the scouting. The scouts did that. Then he made the final decision. He overruled them.

So you're saying nothing changed in 2020, even though Kraft said it did.

What the heck does more collaboration mean? It means Belichick would go along with their recommendations.

Otherwise NOTHING changed in 2020 even though Kraft said it did.