Mike Vrabel not concerned with potentially having one player from 2024 draft class on roster (from WEEI)

[rkarp1]

the Eliot Wolf drafts and evaluating them start in 2025.
2025 was his evaluations based on player trends and tendencies he wanted.

please, someone, anyone, convince me otherwise.

 

[PatsFan2]

Sure, 2022 and 2024 will scar the team forever. That maye fella won't make a difference at all.

If we want to fire Wolf and staff for 2022 and 2024, then perhaps we might include 2023 in the mix in his evaluation.
Gonzo
White
Mapu
Andrews
Ryland
Sow
Mafi
Boutte
Barringer
Douglas
Bolden

Other than the oft-injured Sow, all will have at least an average NFL career. Mafi, Andrews and Ryland may ALL be starting for other teams this year. Gonzales, White, Boutte, Barringer, and Douglass are top contributors for us. We'll see about Mapu and Bolden. I do expect them to play a couple of more years.

I hope Marte Poopoo ain't playing for us: play for some other Team or Canada.

 

[upstater1]

the Eliot Wolf drafts and evaluating them start in 2025.
2025 was his evaluations based on player trends and tendencies he wanted.

please, someone, anyone, convince me otherwise.

This is based on?

I'm going to offer some speculation the other way: in 2019, Bob Kraft came out and said that starting in 2020, Belichick would have to defer more to the scouting and personnel department, even if he had final decision making authority.

Wolf and Groh came on at that point.

Now we know for a fact that some people have reported that certain players picked post 2020 were Belichick picks for sure with no outside advice (I can name, for instance, Marte Mapu and Jake Andrews), but the fact is, we don't know if this new Kraft directive had anything to do with most of the other players.

Here's something else I'll throw at you: twice Callahan at the Herald reported that Belichick disagreed with assessments made by the Pro Personnel, Scouting and draft department. One was over Jakobi Meyers and Smith Schuster, and the other was with Mac Jones. If you look at what happened in the draft room when the Mac Jones pick came up, it was really peculiar. They hesitated and Belichick kept asking something to effect of, "Are we sure?" or "Does anyone object?" or "Do we really want to do this?" When Callahan reported that Belichick was not in on the Mac Jones selection, and that he wanted to move on from Mac Jones as soon as 2022, I was not surprised at all given what I saw in the locker room. It was like the moment of wedding vows when the priest asks people in the audience to speak up or forever hold their peace.

Anyway, outside of a few cases when we know they were Belichick specials (Mapu and Andrews) or Belichick disagreements (Meyers and Jones), we can't be really sure whether Kraft's directive had the intended impact, where Belichick deferred to the scout and pro personnel staff.

 

[Clonamery]

the Eliot Wolf drafts and evaluating them start in 2025.
2025 was his evaluations based on player trends and tendencies he wanted.

please, someone, anyone, convince me otherwise.

Um, the TN Way is closer to the Packer Way ?

 

[Wozzy]

the Eliot Wolf drafts and evaluating them start in 2025.
2025 was his evaluations based on player trends and tendencies he wanted.

please, someone, anyone, convince me otherwise.

Collaboration started at the end of 2020 and beginning of 2021 when Wolf was hired.

Bob announced Bill was no longer alone in personnel and it was collaboration at the owner’s meeting entering the 2021 season. In 2024 offseason Wolf and Jonathan were completely in charge,

Bill had been on vacation a year at that point… how was he responsible in 2024?

Pure stupidity and more irrational BB hating… laughable.

Covid? Clearly Bill Belichick was responsible.

 

[Brotherblues]

Ya, I’m not going to give them flowers for the Gonzo pick. If they knew he would be this good they wouldn’t have traded out their pick to Pitt. The only explanation is they had Gonzo and Forbes rated similarly and would take whoever Wash didn’t take. So….we may have ended up with Forbes

I don't think they were dead set on CB. Smith-Njigba might have been the alternative.

I'd still rather Gonzo and would not have risked him with that tradedown.

 

[Triumph]

What’s he supposed to say?
“Well we can’t compete, Wolf sucks at picking players”!!

Or, Bob Kraft is the GM behind the curtain.

Go ask him.

 

[signbabybrady]

'22 and '24 drafts are pure abominations that will impact this team's ability to compete in coming years considerably. Drafts that poor simply cannot happen.

I hope there is some serious hyperbole here.

There were some really bad drafts in the late 90s combined with the injury to Edwards one of the best picks the late 90s produced. Also combined with a bad draft other than QB in 2000. Yet Bill and that great QB were able to build a dynasty off of it by getting the QB right, a bunch of very good free agent moves, and a great coaching staff.

The '22 and '24 drafts hurt but if Vrabel and Maye are as good as we think they can be then there is no reason we can't get competitive very quickly. Obviously asking a lot to win 3 out of 4 so I'll stick with no reason we can't be competitive. And maybe if Campbell can have a Seymour like impact we can be competitive as soon as this year.

 

[DoubleDeluxe]

I hope there is some serious hyperbole here.

There were some really bad drafts in the late 90s combined with the injury to Edwards one of the best picks the late 90s produced. Also combined with a bad draft other than QB in 2000. Yet Bill and that great QB were able to build a dynasty off of it by getting the QB right, a bunch of very good free agent moves, and a great coaching staff.

The '22 and '24 drafts hurt but if Vrabel and Maye are as good as we think they can be then there is no reason we can't get competitive very quickly. Obviously asking a lot to win 3 out of 4 so I'll stick with no reason we can't be competitive. And maybe if Campbell can have a Seymour like impact we can be competitive as soon as this year.

I agree with this and have said the same thing a thousand times. Once you have the right guy at QB, everything else is so much easier, and faster to fall into place. We all hope Maye is that guy, and if so we should be competing for the playoffs immediately.

For people that argue this, consider this scenario: Wash takes Daniels and he turns into Trey Lance, how many games does Wash win last year, 4?

Now folks will argue, Wash was building for years…blah blah, that’s BS. The right QB expedites everything, and the wrong one keeps a franchise in purgatory (even if the rest of the roster is decent).

 

[rkarp1]

Eliot Wolf had a great draft in 2023

 

[DC Patriots]

Harris was better than Michel. Jake Bailey was a 1st team All Pro punter.

Chubb was just better and a star for a lot of years. But I don’t know if we win that Superbowl without Sony. I’d happily trade a whole draft class for a superbowl win. So would fans of probably almost every other team

 

[DoubleDeluxe]

Chubb was just better and a star for a lot of years. But I don’t know if we win that Superbowl without Sony. I’d happily trade a whole draft class for a superbowl win. So would fans of probably almost every other team

Chubb was the far better pick, and I’m sure he would have been just as, but most likely more productive on our SB run.

 

[203Pat]

We have to keep in context these two things in regards to the 2024 draft:
- Wolf didn't have his crap together yet, for various reasons. Did not have the title yet, spent a lot of time helping Mayo find coaches because Mayo didn't know anyone, etc.
- The coaches didn't have a clue, so they couldn't help Wolf define a vision for the types of players they wanted. Even in the spring, they started OTAs late because they still didn't know what their own plans were.

Then look at the results:
1 - Drake Maye - while this might be easy to say "well duh, of course they took Maye", they very easily could have traded down for a nice little haul, so give credit for sticking and picking.
2 - Ja'Lynn Polk - remains to be seen as he will be back in 2026. He was a commonly held 2nd round value. That said, Wolf loses credit for trading down out of the pick where McConkey went.
3 - Caedan Wallace - IMO, he will stick on the roster this year and seems to be developing into a potentially decent guard. If he's starting at LG in 2026 then this selection looks different.
4 - Layden Robinson - seemed to be a pick that fit Van Pelt's system more than McDaniels'. That said he will probably return in 2026 as well, but I doubt he ever contributes anything.
4 - Javon Baker - was always a dice roll pick. If he hit, he'd be pretty good, but he was a known risk as far as the mental side. He showed well on special teams, so I am guessing he will float around on and off the roster/practice squad for this year and potentially future years.
6 - Marcellas Dial - a special teams pick, and he looked good on special teams. I think he'd be a nice contributor there this year if he didn't get hurt.
6 - Joe Milton - was flipped one year later for a 5th round pick, one round higher value. This pick was then traded down in the 2025 draft in exchange for an additional 6th rounder, which was later traded again for two late 7th rounders. So ultimately Joe Milton was swapped for K Andres Borregales, LS Julian Ashby, and CB Kobee Minor.
7 - Jaheim Bell - ultimately never worked out, but as a 7th rounder, not the end of the world. Most 7th round picks don't make it.

The front office also signed S Dell Pettus as a UDFA who went on to make the team, and probably will again in 2025.

So I think the idea that "only one player from the 2024 draft on the 2025 roster" is a little disengenous - two additional players are on IR, two more may very well make the roster, one was traded for an increase in value after a year, and a UDFA from that class is a fringe roster player also. Was it a good class? No, but to act like every single player has totally flamed out after one season is not right, either.

If Drake Maye ends up being a franchise QB then in 10 years no one will care about how bad the rest of the picks are. With that being said this looks like it could be one of the worst drafts we have seen.

Polk realistically was a 50/50 shot at best to make the roster. For a 2nd year player who was a second round pick it is nearly unheard of to be cut in year 2 without off-field issues.

Wallace seems like he will make the team but will likely only start out of severe necessity.

Robinson is already cut.

Baker might not be on the team by this time tomorrow.

Dial's situation is unfortunate because I think he could have found a role as a special teamer and maybe worked his way in the defensive rotation. Now he will be fighting an uphill battle in 2026 after coming off an ACL injury and missing the year.

Milton was an odd pick then and I guess the silver lining is they flipped him for a 5th. I will give them credit there but it is hard to call the actual pick good since he was viewed as a major project and we abandoned said project after a year because he was a pain in the ass. Maybe a little more thought should have gone into picking a highlight reel type rookie at the same position you took a guy youre hoping is going to be the franchise QB.

Bell was a 7th round pick so can't really lament that one too much. He just didn't seem to find any semblance of a role here.

All in all those are horrendous results and whatever system used last year should be scrapped. Fingers crossed for this rookie class.

 

[203Pat]

Chubb was just better and a star for a lot of years. But I don’t know if we win that Superbowl without Sony. I’d happily trade a whole draft class for a superbowl win. So would fans of probably almost every other team

You could have swapped out Sony for any one of two dozen starting running backs and had the same results.

 

[DoubleDeluxe]

You could have swapped out Sony for any one of two dozen starting running backs and had the same results.

Remember when we drafted Sony he was supposed to be the more dynamic UGA back. We all knew Chubb was the bigger far more physical back, but he also proved to be the much more dynamic. Seemed like every time I played against him in FF he was ripping off 70 yard runs. Sony looked slow in the NFL, always got caught from behind.

 

[203Pat]

Remember when we drafted Sony he was supposed to be the more dynamic UGA back. We all knew Chubb was the bigger far more physical back, but he also proved to be the much more dynamic. Seemed like every time I played against him in FF he was ripping off 70 yard runs. Sony looked slow in the NFL, always got caught from behind.

I don't know what happened to Sony in the passing game. That seemed to be one of his strong suits was what he offered as a pass catcher coming out of Georgia and he left here with a grand total of 26 catches for 258 yards. He was just so throughly average in all areas.

 

[One-If-By-Sea]

Would love to be a fly on the wall hearing Vrabel and Cowden: criticizing that Draft; well deserved too.

I bet Cowden would say to Vrabel, "I think Wolf was GM of the year in 2024". I am POSITIVE that is what Cowden would say

 

[One-If-By-Sea]

Lots of excuses there.

Milton and a 7th for a 5th.
Let’s not pretend it was a great trade value wise

If Milton is rubbish, it is a great trade. I think you value Milton a lot more than I do.

 

[Clonamery]

Eliot Wolf had a great draft in 2023

Say it ain't so, Joe. Can't we blame he and BB for all of our misery?

 

[Grogan14]

You could have swapped out Sony for any one of two dozen starting running backs and had the same results.

Or someone named Lamar Jackson