MORSE: Patriots GM Search, Key Decision Due, Robyn Glaser Promotion

From the Patriots Press Conference introducing Jerod Mayo as their 15^th Head Coach, Robert “Thunder” Kraft answered some of the media questions about the GM search.

Kraft “Before key decisions have to be made we will appoint someone.” “At the same time, we’ll probably start doing interviews and looking at people from the outside.” Most of the scouting has been completed and usually the Head Coach and members of his staff do follow up interviews, attend College All-Star games and practices, Pro Days and finally bring in 30 players to Gillette for final check. This point person will also be the contact with the league and conduct negotiations for Free Agents.

Mike Reiss reported that the team may not address the GM position at all. That’s not exactly true. Most Front Office personnel’s contracts don’t expire until after the draft. They could make the decision before the draft and allow the new GM to draft using the draft board that has been established by the scouts. Mayo wants coaches that will challenge him and not just hear echos when he talks.

According to Miguel Benzan (@patscap) the Patriots have $80K (once they cut JC Jackson and his $13M owed in 2024) to spend on Free Agents.

In 30 years of Ownership, the team has never had a GM. Bobby Grier and Scott Pioli had the titles of Vice President of Player Personnel.

First Days of Jerod Mayo Era

Things are happening fast for the New Head Coach of the Patriots. Here is a timeline of activities that Jerod Mayo must address in his first 118 days of his Patriots tenure:

January 21: Dream Bowl College All-Star Game
January 27:East West Shrine Game Practice start
January 29: Senior Bowl Practices start
February 1: East West Shrine Game 8:00 NFL Network
February 3: Senior Bowl Game 12:00 NFL Network
February 24: HBCU Legacy Bowl NFL Network
January 17- March 10: Teams can negotiate with their own Free Agents
February 20:Teams may begin designating Franchise/Transition players.
February 27-March 4:NFL Scouting Combine (Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis, IN).
March 5 – April 10: College Pro Days
March 5:Teams must designate Franchise/Transition players prior to 4 p.m., New York time.
March 11-13:Free-agency negotiation period.
March 13:End/start of League Year. The 2024 League Year and free-agency period begin at 4 p.m., New York time. Trades can begin and teams can sign free agents.
March 24-27:Annual League Meeting (Orlando, FL).
April 1:Clubs that hired a new head coach after the end of the 2023 regular season may begin offseason workout programs.
April 15:Clubs with returning head coaches may begin offseason workout programs.
April 17:Last day for teams to bring 30 draft-eligible players to facility for visits.
April 25-27:2024 NFL Draft (Detroit, Mich.)
May 2:Deadline for Clubs to exercise fifth-year option for players selected in the first round of the 2021 NFL Draft.
May 3-6/May 10-13:Rookie minicamps.

Five critical decisions must be made early for Jerod Mayo.

1 – General Manager or equivalent – Jerod May said during his introductory press conference that titles are important. Given the timeline above, Free Agents signings of those players who have played for you and those that are Unrestricted Free Agents in the league. Who is negotiating those? Robert Kraft indicated that he would like to promote from within like he has done in all other areas of the Kraft Group. According to Kraft, the organization will utilize a collaborative approach for the time being. He went on to say that internal candidates will be interviewed as well as external candidates. Collaboration was the key word of the day.

That could mean director of player personnel Matt Groh and director of scouting Eliot Wolf running things for the time being. Most of the scouting has been completed. Patriots coaches under contract will perform follow up interviews, workout and scout the All-Star games, Pro Days and individual workouts to validate what the scouts have written about the college player.

Don’t discount the role of Executive Vice President for Football Business and Senior Advisor to the Head Coach, Robyn Glaser’s involvement (more on her later). Mayo plans on leaning on the experts in their particular fields, but he’s expected to contribute to the overall collaborative decisions as well. She was recently promoted to this new title and as a lawyer, generated all the contracts for the players. She did not negotiate the contracts length or financial compensation.

Matt Groh is closely aligned to Bill Belichick and may go wherever Belichick goes. That would leave Eliot Wolf and Robyn Glaser as the internal candidates.

It’s a unique approach to team building and drastically different from the way things have been run for the previous 24 seasons, which was basically Belichick making all the final decisions.

The Patriots have some major decisions to make starting with free agency. They have a slew of expiring contracts to go through, along with plenty of money to spend on outside talent. The team also owns the No. 3 overall pick of the 2024 NFL draft. It remains to be seen whether such an approach could be successful in New England.

Kraft also didn’t rule out the possibility of hiring a general manager down the road.

2- Hiring of a Defensive Coordinator – Mayo stated that he believes that titles are important. This philosophy was 180-degree change for Bill Belichick. Reports were made that both of Bill Belichick’s sons were offered new contracts with the team. Most media members believe they will join their father wherever he ends up (ATL). Carolina’s Linebacker Coach and former Boston College Defensive Coordinator Tem Lukabu is set to meet with Mayo for the Defensive Coordinator position. Internally, Marcus Covington the highly valued Defensive Line coach could be promoted to Defensive Coordinator.

3- Hiring an Offensive Coordinator – Is Bill O’Brien safe in his job? Is he even a candidate to return? Josh McDaniels was at the Bill Belichick parting press conference. Is he a candidate?

4- Free Agency – Retaining those players you want to retain and negotiating with Unrestricted Free Agents. Assignment of Franchise and Transitional Tags.

5 – Upcoming critical Draft. The Patriots will have their highest selection in the Kraft’s 30-year tenure as owners, with the number 2 selection in the April 25-27 Draft.

Troy Brown to Coach at Senior Bowl

Brown will be the Offensive Coordinator at the Senior Bowl for the American Team. Under the Senior Bowl “Coach Up” format, they take NFL Coordinators and Assistant coaches and elevate them into new roles and responsibility. Last season Patriots Defensive Line coach DeMarcus Covington was the Defensive Coordinator for the American team, and he got a close-up view of Marte Mapu, whom the Patriots selected.

Potential Patriots Coaching Staff

An interesting article was written by Patriots Wire Predicting Jerod Mayo’s coaching staff in post-Bill Belichick era (usatoday.com). In the article they predict the Patriots will be raiding the Los Angeles Rams for Zac Robinson (Offensive Coordinator), QB Coach KJ Black, Nick Jones as Offensive Line coach, and a return of Nick Caley as TE Coach. Troy Brown will be demoted to Special Teams Returner coach. Former Pats James White (RB), Matthew Slater (Special Teams), Patrick Chung (Safeties) and Donte Hightower (Asst Defensive).

From the College ranks they would raid Georgia for Travaris Robinson (Cornerbacks) and Brian Jean-Mary (Linebackers) from Tennessee.

Robyn Glaser named Executive Vice President for Football Business and Senior Advisor to the Head Coach

Who is Robyn Glaser and why is she at the top of the New England Patriots Management team. According to Phil Perry of NBC Sports Boston, Glaser received the new title of Executive Vice President of Football Business and Senior Advisor to the Head Coach. Previously her job title was Senior Vice President, Business Affairs for the Kraft Group, the holding company for the Kraft family’s businesses.

According to her bio on the website “Put Me In”, she is the co-founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Put Me In.

She handles various business projects and strategic initiatives for organization, and is one of the Kraft’s senior business advisors, executing special projects and philanthropic initiatives. Glaser manages several operational and administrative functions for the New England Patriots football team, including league relations and compliance, supporting human resources and finance, negotiating sports performance and technology deals, and managing the player social justice fund initiative.

Glaser serves as a business advisor in the areas of operations, organizational structure, financing, strategic partnerships, content development, customer acquisition and culture to a number of start-up and mid-stage companies and investment funds.

She also serves as a business-leader advisory council to the Mayor of Boston and is a civic leader in the city, working for many community-based organizations focused on issues of social justice.

She joined the Kraft group in 2017 and per her own admission in Bates College Alumni article “Not bad for someone who admits that before she was hired by the Kraft’s 10 years ago, she’d never watched an entire football game. “If it was football or Project Runway, it was Project Runway all the time,” she said.” She brings a business perspective and neutral view to football operations.

Catherine Raiche as the Cleveland Browns Assistant GM was the highest-ranking female executive in the NFL. It appears that Glaser is now the League’s Top Executive, running the day-to-day operations of the Patriots as Jonathan Kraft is more involved with the general Operation of the Kraft Group’s holdings. That was what Robert Kraft told the assembled media at his press conference today. He was asked why Jonathan wasn’t there and he explained that he was working on a difficult issue within the Kraft Group’s holdings. She may not get the title of General Manager (Patriots haven’t had a General Manager in 30 years of Kraft ownership) but it appears she is the #1 Front Office personnel that the Director of Pro Personnel (Matt Groh) and Director of College Scouting (Eliot Groh) are reporting to as well as an advisor to Head Coach Jerod Mayo. She will continue to develop the contracts for the players.

Curious that this promotion was leaked to Seth Wickersham a week ago and only announced by the Patriots after the press conference yesterday. I don’t think the Kraft’s wanted the Press Conference announcing Jerod Mayo to be hijacked by the Glaser announcement. I wonder if this new role will be Glaser advising Mayo on league rules and policies and perhaps a Berj Najarian role as gate keeper to Mayo, allowing him to concentrate on the team and its performance. Najarian also kept Belichick’s calendar and appointments.

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About Mark Morse

Merrimack Valley native and lifelong fan of the New England Patriots. My earliest memories of the Patriots were attending as a child with my dad, the off-season practice at Phillips Academy. I was at the Patriots game at Harvard Stadium in 1970 where Bob “Harpo” Gladieux was called out of the stands by the stadium announcer over the PA to play in the game. Analyzing the draft since ESPN first started to televise it in 1980 and former writer for the Lowell Sun Newspaper.

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