Ok before anybody loses their shlitz, the "all of them" was for comic effect... although suuuure sometimes it feels that way.
I should add up-front,
1) I primarily know nothing.... this is a privately held organization that takes its information management very seriously.
2) I know a little more -- or have food for conjecture -- when they make a public statement. There is a huge risk if they outright lie, because they want to use the information they vent as a tool, so if they cannot be believed, that is a loss of value. If it's important enough, of course they might lie. But we're more likely to have what can later be described as being honest... but where there's room for any sort of interpretation, lack of detail, etc., there can be a whole story there. The key is, we don't know what that story is (unless, for some reason, we do.) E.g., it's not a slam dunk to read that Kraft says he wants a different approach because the present one did not produce recent results,
and that means...
3) Another kind of information could be the main purpose for that message, and I suspect it is: well,
that happened. It's a public airing of in-house disagreement. Krafty's not "on the loose," but he reserves the right to make it happen whatever that means. Yes, he's hands-off, but the leash isn't infinite. And he wants results in the draft. He did
not say "Change is coming, and the name of that change is Eliot Wolf." And he said it in such a way that Bill could publicly shrug and say "he's not saying anything that everybody doesn't know. We did some things well, we hit on some picks, there are some we'd like back, we didn't do enough recently..." or something. You know, we're on to 2021.
We're looking back at it after hitting on the biggest pick in 20 years. Was there groundlaying there in case we whiffed on Jones, didn't do much better elsewhere, and finished 6-11? Yeah, in that scenario, BB would be on the way to a make or break 2022. So that's another hypothetical message -- again, for us to see the message in the open was part of the intent, for the fanbase to have the bug in their ear "Kraft agrees, do better," is part of the intent. That's a big enough statement that it doesn't just slip out.
The criteria that was used to select Harry in the 1st round?
He was obviously brought in (probably by Kraft) not to copy what pats were doing but to bring new ideas. He's getting credit for the success of the recent drafts. I believe Kraft said it was a collaborative effort.
Yeahhhhh he was there, and I am glad to say
could be an unnamed great asset, and I'm not even arguing the contrary. I'm just agreeing with the folks acknowledging our epistimological limitations... it is enough to try to be honest about we know and what we don't know. That's hard enough. Building a case that we know something inferentially, without direct evidence, seems a low percentage bet. I will say, I said "obviously" once too often in a freshman discussion free-for-all about 40 years ago (Jesus... 41?????) and a now no doubt dead professor had heard it from me once too often, and said "what's obvious to you might not be obvious to everybody." The way he said it stuck with me
I became wary of the word... he was right. It was a crutch (functionally) and it was a red flag (in terms of the meaning conveyed by its use.) THAT WAS ME... I only note it here because "obviously" made me think immediately, hmmm. Wonder what's assumed here.
The 2021 draft was conducted differently than in the past. They brought in Wolf. It was more of a collaborative effort instead of Bill having veto power. Kraft initiated these efforts, tired of the results of the recent poor drafts. There was also a marked change in FAcy. Again, Kraft spoke about this. Kraft wants to win and wasn't going to sit idly by while things continued the same, but this time w/o the GOAT. You don't need to be a genius to read all of Krafts comments during the offseason to realize this.
You can believe what you want, but it's clear things have changed in the FO.
I don't mean to quote you twice - nothing personal.
Kraft commented emphasizing how you need to draft well to win. Check.
There was a "noted change in free agency." Check. To wit, the much-mentioned spending spree, in the presence of DEFLATION in the cost of contracts -- to be followed by years of INFLATION, most markedly the leap from '21-'22 -- using salary cap as a proxy for expected overall market movements.
This would argue for a possible misdirection in Kraft's focus on the draft. WHO KNOWS? But if I'm trying to work the caponomics and only a couple of other teams are cottoning on to the dynamic, I could see gettnig everybody talking about the draft while my team works FA in the historically cheap market.
It could have gone another way, if you think about it. What if EVERYBODY spent a ton this year (whoever had the cap space, but lets say a bunch more teams blew it all up and bought in now at select positions, pushing the per position costs higher even in a down cap year, until rough equilibrium was reached.) So that sleight of hand, if we were seeing a little of that, would have a purpose. It's not much different in concept from touring a home you love and saying "Man, this place has load-bearing walls right where I'd want to open it up... I mean I couild work with it... but everybody would want to open it up these days..."
"Man I love free agency but let's face it, winning teams are built in the draft..."
Everybody thinks the personnel decisions changed just because BB went around the room and asked if everyone was OK with the Mac Jones pick. That's not collaboration. That's validation and if anyone said no they'd be fired for not surfacing concerns in pre-draft meetings.
BB going around the room, on publicly released footage, pointedly asking for the collaboration, in the presence of releases on how its a collaborative process, reminded me of when Trump's cabinet went around the room and said "Let me just say how honored I am to serve in your cabinet," with no other content. The message of that video was "Now we collaborate." The truth, of course, is that Nike pulls their strings and they BETTER say Mac Jones when Nike says Mac Jones. Seriously, it looked staged.
Like I said, I just don't believe most of what we see... I would not point to that public heated agreement as anything but draft-day entertainment and propaganda. For some reason, it was important for everybody to see a collaborative process.
So I do think that Kraft wanted the collab. process, the group trip to the grocery store before cooking dinner, but more than that, he wanted it on display.
Punitively, to publicly correct Bill? To shut the sports mediots up about our drafting, protecting Bill? To magnify the importance of the draft, so the public "rebuke" value would be the story, not the FA spending?
To quote a brighter light than me, all I know is that I don't know anything.
