Well said... but it will be hard. Cowden will eventually get offers to be poached. Hopefully Kraft can get him a cushy title and a fat paycheck to stick around. Highsmith will probably float off to some other pasture after a few years, but that is kinda his thing, and that's probably OK. As long as they can keep Vrabel-Wolf-Cowden together, I think they will keep getting results. Stretch too, but I really don't think he is going anywhere as long as Vrabel is here.
One other guy to mention is Jeremy Springer, who we don't talk about from a personnel standpoint much, but I believe has a sizeable input on the special teams contributions aspect of draft selections/UDFA choices. He was their point person on that front for the Rams as the Asst. Special Teams Coordinator before coming to NE, and you can see how their special teams have started to crack there since he's been gone; conversely, NE has done pretty well there.