PATRIOTS NEWS Breer: Eliot Wolf will stay. Relationship between Wolf and Vrabel worked from the start

[Ring 6]

It was 2 additional first round picks and both were bottom half of the first round. Jamal Adams was traded to the Seahawks for two later 1st round picks.

Even a drunk monkey would not trade a chance at a top 5 or 10 franchise QB for two additional later first round draft picks.

A drunk monkey who thought JJ not ready for the NFL McCarty was Drake Drake Maye Maye would.

 

[Ring 6]

How is it a bad GM decision? What if McConkey is an one year wonder? He is the Chargers' #1 WR and he doesn't even have 800 yards yet this season and he has been catching only 62% of his targets. Has had more games of 20 or less yards (4) than over 100 (2) this season. He has been very average this at best.

People look at McConkey in hindsight. Many people wanted to avoid him because of his injury history.

But what I said was 100% about player evaluation. If I am correct, it would have been that Wolf evaluated Douglas as a player as good or better than McConkey and looking at McConkey as not a player of need since the position he plays is already filled.

Polk was a bad pick, but I wonder if he wouldn't have been if he was drafted this season with McDaniels and Vrabel rather than Mayo and Van Pelt. McDaniels would have at least used Polk the way he should have been used as a Z WR. He may still have busted out, but not in any way because of coaching incompetence.

Polk busted out because of Polk. Don’t make excuses for him.

 

[Rob0729]

Polk busted out because of Polk. Don’t make excuses for him.

How do we know? He hasn't even played a full season. He is a bust because he is injury prone now and the Pats didn't want to wait another year to try to develop him and see if he can become a productive player. He could turn it around in New Orleans.

But whether or not he is a bust, doesn't change the fact he was completely misused last year. I saw most of the comps saying he was a Mohamed Sanu comp and pre-Patriots Sanu. When the Pats traded for Sanu, they traded for him to be the Z possession WR and would never have used him as an X even if he didn't get injured and bust as a trade.

 

[TommyD4207]

Kraft has to pump up Wolf because Wolf is/was terrible at his job. the media does themselves no favors. 90% of the media (all media, not just sports) has an agenda, and 99% of sports media carry water for a favored source. The force feeding of Wolf during Forged in Foxboro was obvious to anyone who watched. Breer is a mouthpiece for ownership/GMs, Bedard is a mouthpiece for McDaniels, Tom Curran was a mouthpiece for Brady's father/Brady, Ron Borges and Kevin Mannix were vociferously anti-Belichick, Will McDonough was a mouthpiece for Parcells and the Maras....the list goes on and on and on.

I hate agreeing with you in particular, but you're one of the few that's been paying attention on this.

Wolf is under contract through the end of next season. Kraft does not want to pay him again, if he doesn't have to.
If he gets a GM job somewhere else - not only does he not have to pay him, he makes another team worse.
It costs nothing to let Wolf pump his own tires in the media all season, when he's a glorified receptionist. It costs nothing. Something Kraft is on board with, in particular.

 

[Ring 6]

How do we know? He hasn't even played a full season. He is a bust because he is injury prone now and the Pats didn't want to wait another year to try to develop him and see if he can become a productive player. He could turn it around in New Orleans.

But whether or not he is a bust, doesn't change the fact he was completely misused last year. I saw most of the comps saying he was a Mohamed Sanu comp and pre-Patriots Sanu. When the Pats traded for Sanu, they traded for him to be the Z possession WR and would never have used him as an X even if he didn't get injured and bust as a trade.

We saw him play.
He isn’t mohammed Sanu and Sanu wouldn’t have been worthy of that draft slot.

Hes a bust because his entire Patriot career amounted to being the starting wr in NFL history, or at least the last 50 years. You can’t excuse him from that.
No matter what happens going forward the pick has already turned out for the patriots.
Are you implying that if he goes on to play better somehere that means the pick was better? Because we will get nothing more from it than we have.

 

[The Gr8est]

It was 2 additional first round picks and both were bottom half of the first round. Jamal Adams was traded to the Seahawks for two later 1st round picks.

Even a drunk monkey would not trade a chance at a top 5 or 10 franchise QB for two additional later first round draft picks.

Agreed that the offer wasn’t the king’s ransom that it would have taken.

In hindsight, no offer would have been good enough since Drake appears to not just be a franchise QB, but a generational talent.

A king’s ransom offer would be something like the Bears got from Carolina and netted them the 1st overall pick in 2025.

 

[Rob0729]

We saw him play.
He isn’t mohammed Sanu and Sanu wouldn’t have been worthy of that draft slot.

Hes a bust because his entire Patriot career amounted to being the starting wr in NFL history, or at least the last 50 years. You can’t excuse him from that.
No matter what happens going forward the pick has already turned out for the patriots.
Are you implying that if he goes on to play better somehere that means the pick was better? Because we will get nothing more from it than we have.

We saw him used as a down the field deep threat. If Cincy used Sanu as a down the field threat after drafting him, he would have been a bust. BTW, Sanu only had 154 yards his rookie season. Granted, he was a third round pick and not a second.

And I am not saying he is as good as Sanu was. I am saying Sanu was his pre-draft comp. Polk is a Sanu type of player. And that isn't the X.

And if he turns into a good player, yes he was a better pick than we think AND he was mismanged here. Doesn't change that he turned into a wasted draft pick for the Patriots.

And he is a bust for the Patriots because he played half a season for the Patriots for his entire Patriots career as a second round pick. Even if he turns into Randy Moss 2.0 (not remotely saying he will) next year, he will still be a bust for the Patriots.

 

[upstater1]

A lot of people, including a sizable number on this board, had argued that the Pats should trade down for extra picks. And many mediots were arguing the Patriots weren't "ready" for a QB and should just "build the team for" their future QB.

If a GM doesn't select a QB in that position, they should be ousted and never given a job again.

Anyone who argues that isn't a GM. I'm confident 32 out of 32 GMs would do exactly what Wolf did.

 

[upstater1]

I am not defending him. I am saying he got the only pick that truly matters right so that buys him a lot of rope.

I loved this cartoon about Columbus as a kid. There was this episode that stuck with me some 30+ years later. After he returned from his first Americas trip, somebody threw him a party. One of the attendees started saying what Columbus did was nothing special and anybody could have done it. Columbus took a raw egg and asked the guy to make it stay upright. The guy tries many times and could not do it. Columbus takes the egg and cracks it on the table thereby creating a platform to keep the egg upright.

The guy then says oh, that's easy, I could have done it too. Columbus' response was anybody can do anything once they are shown how.

Always stuck with me because it is something I see repeatedly everywhere. People love to minimize other people's accomplishments by saying that was easy, anybody could have done it. Hindsight is 20/20.

32 out of 32 GMs would have done it. This is not Columbus and no hindsight is needed.

 

[upstater1]

Then you are indifferent if Wolf stays since Cowden is here.

Did you listen to Breer. Tonga and Woodson were because of Wolf and his staff and not Cowden.

Great! I don't think these are game changers. There are actually a lot of good rookie safeties we could have taken. At least 6 of them taken before and after Woodson have had really good years. It's a struggle finding a bad rookie safety in the meat of the draft. As for Tonga, I like him and appreciate him. But I think he is a marginal starter. He is more or less like the many nondescript run stoppers we've had through the years.

 

[Rob0729]

Great! I don't think these are game changers. There are actually a lot of good rookie safeties we could have taken. At least 6 of them taken before and after Woodson have had really good years. It's a struggle finding a bad rookie safety in the meat of the draft. As for Tonga, I like him and appreciate him. But I think he is a marginal starter. He is more or less like the many nondescript run stoppers we've had through the years.

Those are just the two examples Breer gave in this piece. That doesn't mean they are the only players Wolf had his hands on.

 

[TommyD4207]

Those are just the two examples Breer gave in this piece. That doesn't mean they are the only players Wolf had his hands on.

You do understand that every word Breer said/printed came directly from Elliot Wolf, right?

 

[upstater1]

Those are just the two examples Breer gave in this piece. That doesn't mean they are the only players Wolf had his hands on.

We just differ. I tend to think all the bad offensive line picks over the last several years are Wolf's fault.

My lord, if you can't tell Caeden Wallace is never going to be an NFL player, how in the world are you evaluating Layden Robinson, Sidy Sow, Atonio Mafi, and some others we picked?

This is precisely why I see last year's draft as a product of Cowden's influence and not Wolf's.

 

[Wozzy]

This is an opinion piece by Breer… there’s nothing definitive there saying who will stay or go.

 

[Ring 6]

We saw him used as a down the field deep threat. If Cincy used Sanu as a down the field threat after drafting him, he would have been a bust. BTW, Sanu only had 154 yards his rookie season. Granted, he was a third round pick and not a second.

And I am not saying he is as good as Sanu was. I am saying Sanu was his pre-draft comp. Polk is a Sanu type of player. And that isn't the X.

And if he turns into a good player, yes he was a better pick than we think AND he was mismanged here. Doesn't change that he turned into a wasted draft pick for the Patriots.

And he is a bust for the Patriots because he played half a season for the Patriots for his entire Patriots career as a second round pick. Even if he turns into Randy Moss 2.0 (not remotely saying he will) next year, he will still be a bust for the Patriots.

Anything he does from here on has no impact on the success of the pick.
Not falling apart and needing to be dumped in a year is part of whether the choice was good or not.

Rich Gannon wasn’t good pick for the Vikings because he became a good qb many years later for the raiders and never contributed a thing to the Vikings

 

[festy1986]

Why is this a story? The time to get rid of this dude was coming off back to back 4 win seasons, one of which he was the absolute end all be all decision maker.

Not after they had their best season in 7 years.

No one was thinking about Elliot wolfe job security right now.

 

[TommyD4207]

Why is this a story? The time to get rid of this dude was coming off back to back 4 win seasons, one of which he was the absolute end all be all decision maker.

Not after they had their best season in 7 years.

No one was thinking about Elliot wolfe job security right now.

Well, one person is.
And he gave Bert Breer a story to write.

 

[The Gr8est]

We saw him used as a down the field deep threat. If Cincy used Sanu as a down the field threat after drafting him, he would have been a bust. BTW, Sanu only had 154 yards his rookie season. Granted, he was a third round pick and not a second.

And I am not saying he is as good as Sanu was. I am saying Sanu was his pre-draft comp. Polk is a Sanu type of player. And that isn't the X.

And if he turns into a good player, yes he was a better pick than we think AND he was mismanged here. Doesn't change that he turned into a wasted draft pick for the Patriots.

And he is a bust for the Patriots because he played half a season for the Patriots for his entire Patriots career as a second round pick. Even if he turns into Randy Moss 2.0 (not remotely saying he will) next year, he will still be a bust for the Patriots.

I will say that Shuster-Smith was a washout here but was useable in KC.

The coaching staff was a problem.

Don’t want either Polk or Shuster-Smith back, just pointing out the reality that was our disastrous coaching staff last year.

 

[Huckleberry1]

I would also be worried about losing Stretch.

I read something a while ago that said that Stretch’s goal was to become a GM.

BB’s staff got raided heavily too once the Pats’ dynasty took root and showed fruit.

I would like to see them keep the band together as long as possible but I guess it is inevitable.

Of Stretch, Cowden, and Wolf, Wolf seems the most expendable to me.

As I have said before I would like them to make Cowden the GM with final say, that keeps him from being poached, but if they don't they will end up losing both Streicher and Cowden. , in which case they need to keep Wolf around.

 

[Huckleberry1]

It takes a pretty committed drunk monkey to turn down an offer of 3 firsts from Minnesota for the pick.

IMO all signs are that Wolf is valuable within his sphere, that Vrabel likes working with him, and that the current personnel triumvirate is delivering exceptional results. Stay the course.

If they have to be as smart as a drunk monkey That rules FCB out.