Tuesday Patriots Notebook 5/7: News and Notes
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After a solid performance by New England Patriots de-facto GM Eliot Wolf, the stage appears to be set for him to officially become the club’s General Manager.
While the Patriots moved forward with their General Manager interviews this week, the process appears to simply be a matter of due diligence to comply with the league’s interview process.
By all accounts, the team appears pleased with Wolf’s performance and his handling of both the scouting process and the draft.
NBC Sports Boston’s Phil Perry said last night that Wolf is the “overwhelming favorite” and that the news of Wolf’s promotion should be something we’ll hear about in the coming days.
“My understanding is, this is an actual formality,” said Perry. “There is a formal process that the Patriots have to go through to elevate Eliot Wolf to be their primary football executive. I don’t believe the title he’ll get eventually is General Manager. That isn’t a title the Krafts have handed out since they’ve owned the team. But the expectation is, in league circles and people I’ve spoken to just in the last few hours, is that Eliot Wolf will get the job”
“I would be stunned if he doesn’t get the job. He is the overwhelming favorite. So they have to go through this, they have to check this box to be able to elevate him to that position and name him that primary football executive and that’s what they’re doing right now.”
One interesting bit of information that came out of last night was the fact that owner Robert Kraft apparently talked about the process back during the Super Bowl with Tom Curran, with Kraft saying they planned on going through the interview process after the draft and exploring their options. Curran apparently questioned Kraft, saying, “Well, why would you do that?”, pointing out that it was a “Jets” thing to do. Kraft then evidently said, “Well, what would you do?”, to which Curran didn’t elaborate what his response was.
However, that snippet of information is curious, and it’s good to know that whatever plan Kraft may have had has instead seen him shift to hopefully making sure Wolf and his staff remain here heading into the future.
Should this draft class pan out the way it feels like it might, it’s even more important since it could be a great start in fixing the issues from the previous regime. Hopefully, should this group all contribute in 2024, it might even get them back moving in the right direction sooner than expected.
The Boston Globe’s Christopher Price had an absolutely terrific piece on veteran offensive tackle Calvin Anderson this morning, with Price revealing the real reason why Anderson missed the majority of his first season in New England.
He reportedly suffered a frightening battle with malaria last summer that nearly took his life, with his wife hearing the words “Fifty-fifty” at one point when it came to the odds of her husband making it through the illness.
Price wrote that after the club broke for the final time in June, Anderson and his wife did some philanthropy work in Africa as they did for several years. His wife Sherée is half-Nigerian and half-Dutch, so that work was something that had been important to them. However, this time, a mosquito bite that he suffered apparently led to his illness.
Following their return to New England, things started to deteriorate. Days ahead of training camp, Anderson ended up with a temperature of nearly 105, which saw his wife force him to go to the hospital, where they learned of his ailment.
It was a harrowing time, but Bill Belichick apparently kept tabs on Anderson, checking in on him throughout the process, which he was appreciative of.
“At the start of camp, as a head coach, you have a hundred million things going on in your mind about the team, the season, etc.,” Anderson told Price. “I know he had all that going on, so I appreciated that he called me.
He eventually made it back onto the field to start the season, with the veteran playing in 100% of the Patriots’ offensive snaps over the first two weeks. However, the fact he missed camp made things challenging as he had to make up ground from a conditioning standpoint and wasn’t playing to the level he felt he could. To make matters worse, a hit by a defensive teammate to his chest caused him to suffer a contusion to his heart, which ultimately resulted in the club placing him on injured reserve ahead of their Week 9 meeting against Washington.
For now, Anderson is focused on getting back to where he was and is heading into this season on a mission, hoping he can seize the role that eluded him last season.
“This is a new year, a new opportunity,” Anderson said. “And I’m looking forward to that.”
According to Tom Pelissero, Bengals senior personnel executive Trey Brown has reportedly declined an interview request by the Patriots, with Brown likely aware that Wolf is expected to be elevated. … North Carolina head coach Mack Brown said during a conference call on Monday that Drake Maye remained loyal to his team, despite the interest he started garnering while he was there. “Everybody’s trying to pay him a lot of money. He was tampered at the highest level, and he didn’t even consider any of that,” said Brown via Ben Volin. “He said, ‘I’m a North Carolina guy, I’m staying here, so don’t worry about it.'” … The preliminary belief is that Jacoby Brissett will be the starter in Week 1, but it seems like the “best player will play” philosophy Jerod Mayo has preached is a real possibility for Maye. The Boston Herald’s Andrew Callahan wrote on Tuesday that, “some at team headquarters believe Maye could win the job outright.” He writes that what happens between now and September might be a “a two-man race where the gun goes off this spring and both quarterbacks sprint through the summer heat.” He cites the Mac Jones/Cam Newton competition two years ago as the “blueprint”, so it should certainly be fun to watch. … The Patriots posted some photos from voluntary minicamp, which has seen Nick Leverett step in at left guard for Cole Strange, who is still recovering from the knee injury he suffered in September. As expected, Chukwuma Okarafor got the initial work at left tackle, but there is additional competition that’s expected, likely from both Anderson and rookie Caedan Wallace as the club continues figuring things out there.
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April 5 - April 20 (Through 26yrs)
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