Wolf

[One-If-By-Sea]

lots of people impressed with Cowden, but I am not sure why?
he was given the interim GM title in Tenn, but could not get the permanent promotion, after being interim for a couple of months
he interviewed for the GM spot in KC, Carolina, Wash, NYG, Pitts, and came up empty every time.
he was an advisor to the Giants, and they allowed him to leave to come to NE.
I understand Vrabel is comfortable with him. but the guru behind the last 2 drafts/offseasons? his history is too thin imo for him to be much more than Vrabels eyes and ears

Valid points. Cowden is a bit nerdy so he might not interview the best. Vrabel seems to like the "Ernie Adams" type of coach, as do a lot of PatsFans posters.

Wolf has been an assistant GM, but has never been a GM after interviewing multiple times, and the 2024 draft was his chance to shine as he had total control. Wolf bombed. It is OK to miss on a few (everyone does), but to completely miss on every pick is inexcusable. Wolf could have picked Mel Kiper's best available and done much better!!! There is no way to recover from a complete draft wipe out, Cowden has never been involved in one of those.

 

[Huckleberry1]

Definitely agree. But what got into him during that 2024 draft?

Having Vrabel come in with a clear picture of what kind of team he wanted to build, and what profile he wanted for positions made Wolf's job much easier.

 

[Ras-IR Dowling]

Ryan Cowden says hello I will never forgive Wolf for that Maye only Draft pathetic. If this year's Draft is a continuation of last year's: let's just say we Draft well in spite of.

No sugar coating it 2024 was rough but could’ve been worse. At the very least he didn’t move off of Maye for McCarthy.

If you’re gonna hold 24 against Wolf for eternity that’s your right. I happen to see a GM that’s learning from past draft mistakes and has improved. Two years ago he was choosing quantity over quality (Polk and Baker for Ladd). Opposite is happening this year. He was also late on moving up when the run on OL was happening resulting in a reach for Wallace. This year he’s seen the run happening at OT and EDGE and has been proactive in moving up to land these players before the tier drop off.

 

[Huckleberry1]

Ryan Cowden says hello I will never forgive Wolf for that Maye only Draft pathetic. If this year's Draft is a continuation of last year's: let's just say we Draft well in spite of.

You didn't want Drake Maye, you wanted Justin Fields, and when he was traded elsewhere you wanted them to take Marvin Harrison Jr. and " build around him."

 

[Huckleberry1]

Sure is looking like Bill was holding him back. Killed it last year and so far so good these last 2 days.

I don't think Belichick held him back, I think he ignored him, just like he ignored his scouts for years and years. He built 6 Super Bowl winners so it's hard to hold that against him, but the idea that anyone made Belichick take any player is pure fantasy, he did what he wanted the entire time he was here.

 

[Huckleberry1]

Ryan Cowden says hello I will never forgive Wolf for that Maye only Draft pathetic. If this year's Draft is a continuation of last year's: let's just say we Draft well in spite of.

Ryan Cowden did a presser after last years draft and said that Wolf and the scouts had been worjking on that draft for 18 months, and he and Vrabel had been there for around 3, and gave him much of the credit for that draft.

 

[Huckleberry1]

Yeah.. Bill was holding him back... But he did WORSE when HE was the SOLE person picking the groceries.. *SMH*

I think Wolf is a guy who tries to give the head coach what they want, which explains why the last two drafts have gone so well, and the 24' draft so poorly. However in my mind the guy with final say gets the credit and the blame. Despite Wolf having final say Vrabel really has it, and deserves the bulk of the credit for the last 2 drafts, and Wokf gets the credit for Maye, and the blame for the rest of the 24' draft.

 

[Wozzy]

Wolf was hired entering 2021 and Kraft gave him power to make or veto picks and player acquisitions. Kraft said the process changed at the owner’s meeting that offseason… Bob is the team owner in case anyone forgot.

And in case anyone doubts that, Belichick confirmed it in an interview roughly a year ago.



So you’re just a BB hater trying to spread misinformation if you suggest anyone but Wolf was in total control of the 2024 off-season.

 

[scott99]

Definitely agree. But what got into him during that 2024 draft?

Playing Devil’s advocate, Polk was known as a good WR prospect. It was so obvious that it was a major mistake trading down and not drafting McConkey when he had the chance, though McConkey had some injury issues in his college career. But truly a face palm mistake. That being said, Polk was a good college WR coming off a big college season.

Caedan Wallace was also highly thought of coming out of college. Didn’t allow a sack in his final college season. Layden Robinson was just a bad pick.

WR Javon Baker was highly thought of by a lot of people on this board. And thought of as a good pick for a 4th round pick. There were some red flags, and I think immaturity was one of them.

Late round picks, well CB Marcellas Dial is still on the Pats. He was decent for a 6th round pick. We thought we had something with TE Jaheim Bell in the 7th round, short but with explosive measurables. And the enigmatic QB Joe Milton in the 6th round. We thought he’d be a decent back up QB with a cannon arm.

 

[Clonamery]

why are big assed girls like you so angry?

From the lies of the Wolf’s boyfriends.

 

[Wozzy]

Playing Devil’s advocate, Polk was known as a good WR prospect. It was so obvious that it was a major mistake trading down and not drafting McConkey when he had the chance, though McConkey had some injury issues in his college career. But truly a face palm mistake. That being said, Polk was a good college WR coming off a big college season.

Caedan Wallace was also highly thought of coming out of college. Didn’t allow a sack in his final college season. Layden Robinson was just a bad pick.

Had no problem trading down or not taking a slot WR there, the problem was they were already desperate for an offensive tackle the year prior to drafting Will Campbell. Even after trading back they had Patrick Paul staring them in the face. He was a monster sized OT, an exceptional small school athlete who showed out at the senior bowl and proved he belonged.

Instead they took an average sized WR who ran a 4.5 forty. Much like this week’s debate on another thread, if you have a stud LT sitting there and any other position of need besides QB… you take the tackle. Starting left tackles are more rare than high resolution Sasquatch photos and after him there was a huge drop off in talent. He was the last blue chip tackle on the board, at the single biggest position of need and he fell in your lap.

Caseden Wallace was a 6th round pick at best, Wolf reached for him because fans and media were skewering them for not addressing the tackle position and taking a vanilla receiver instead. Marcus Bryant was taken where Wallace should have been… 7th round.

It was a terrible draft class, it was also terrible free agent signings. If you take a WR in the first few rounds that guy better have traits… great measurables or scheme fit. Polk was the same exact prospect they took in Javon Baker rounds later, they could have been twins. You take guys like that at the end of the draft if you take them at all. You can find average athletes aplenty in UDFA…. no need to waste draft picks on them. There’s no excuse for that team build besides the slam dunk of Drake Maye at #3 overall.

 

[imahobgoblin]

We all do our own little mock draft/wish lists. I had none of the players so far on either list but I'm still pretty satisfied as a fan. It's all depth and lottery picks from here out. I can't wait to see the new guys in the preseason.

I do a few mocks a day for the month leading up to the draft. I never thought Faulk and Lomu would fall to our range. I have my tab open to Lomu and thought one of the two was the pick with me wanting Lomu. I nailed Jacas. I had Dunker and Raridon on my board at 95 with the personal preference of Dunker so we could cut Owenu and save $17.5m. But TE was a bigger need, and that is what we are drafting on right now because of the team Bill left us. You are nailing a draft when you get 3 starters. I think we have done that for 2027 and will see them contribute in 2026. We have 5 picks left and its now a crapshoot.

If we hit on just 1, we aced this draft again like last year. Campbell now has the freedom to be a LT, RT, or G based upon o-line talent. The nasty road graders often play RT and the finesse guy often play LT. I would not be surprised in a year or two to see Campbell moved. He is still high quality. LG and C are now set. Owenu had to be dealt with. Maybe an extension to make more flexibility with AJ Brown and an Gonzo extension? We have $35,708,626 in space right now an will need $10m for draft picks.

 

[Bill Lee]

No sugar coating it 2024 was rough but could’ve been worse. At the very least he didn’t move off of Maye for McCarthy.

If you’re gonna hold 24 against Wolf for eternity that’s your right. I happen to see a GM that’s learning from past draft mistakes and has improved. Two years ago he was choosing quantity over quality (Polk and Baker for Ladd). Opposite is happening this year. He was also late on moving up when the run on OL was happening resulting in a reach for Wallace. This year he’s seen the run happening at OT and EDGE and has been proactive in moving up to land these players before the tier drop off.

My $0.02: The last two years has had a lot more "that makes sense" moments than "WTF?!?" moments that we saw over the previous 20+ years.

BB famously was an economics major and loved him some value picks, so much that he was known for trading down to get more bites of the apple.

It was a boom or bust strategy, and it seems most of us tend to remember the busts more than the booms.

Clearly it is hard to see past that sea of mediocre DBs and WRs we picked hoping to find a diamond in the rough.

To give him props, it was hard to make good picks because we typically had bad draft position because we were so successful.

He made some monster picks at DL and LB, and could always stitch together a defensive backfield one way or the other.

Yet we will always wonder how things would have gone if somehow Bill had someone in the room who could talk him out of some of his SMH picks.

If you want to see an even worse form of what we had with Bill, just look at UNC...

 

[gobesmug]

Playing Devil’s advocate, Polk was known as a good WR prospect. It was so obvious that it was a major mistake trading down and not drafting McConkey when he had the chance, though McConkey had some injury issues in his college career. But truly a face palm mistake. That being said, Polk was a good college WR coming off a big college season.

Caedan Wallace was also highly thought of coming out of college. Didn’t allow a sack in his final college season. Layden Robinson was just a bad pick.

WR Javon Baker was highly thought of by a lot of people on this board. And thought of as a good pick for a 4th round pick. There were some red flags, and I think immaturity was one of them.

Late round picks, well CB Marcellas Dial is still on the Pats. He was decent for a 6th round pick. We thought we had something with TE Jaheim Bell in the 7th round, short but with explosive measurables. And the enigmatic QB Joe Milton in the 6th round. We thought he’d be a decent back up QB with a cannon arm.

In hindsight Milton was the worse pick taken. Single handedly cost us the #1 last year which would have given us so much draft capital for this year and next.

 

[mike_usagisan]

I'll give you Wolf is doing a good job on the last two drafts if you give me that Cowden is doing a good job on the last two drafts. Anyone who singles out Wolf is ignoring what happened after 2024.

 

[lancerman]

Then drafting has appeared to be good the last two years. I don't care what the reason is.

 

[Water Boy]

Haters gonna hate

 

[Bill Lee]

Then drafting has appeared to be good the last two years. I don't care what the reason is.

That, and I'd extend it to overall roster management.

FA has been good two years in a row.

In-season roster moves have been good.

The pending Brown deal isn't my favorite move, but it has potential to be very good indeed.

 

[Sect140]

Has anyone thought that maybe Vrabel, Cowden and Wolf make a good team and it’s a total team effort.

 

[Huckleberry1]

I'll give you Wolf is doing a good job on the last two drafts if you give me that Cowden is doing a good job on the last two drafts. Anyone who singles out Wolf is ignoring what happened after 2024.

I think all 4 deserve credit for the last 2 drafts. I think one of the biggest differences in strategy is that Belichick prized position versatility and special teams ability whereas Wolf puts more stock into their abilities at their position.