Bedard on Harsh Eliot Wolf Criticism: ‘I disagree with that’
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In the coming days, the Patriots will likely take the final steps to find Jerod Mayo’s successor, with the club looking to move “fast” as they try and move on following Mayo’s departure on Sunday.
The first-year coach was fired barely an hour removed from Sunday’s 23-16 win over the Bills, and Robert Kraft told reporters Tuesday that the goal was to find someone who could get them back to being a contender after two-straight 4-13 seasons.
Who that will be remains to be seen. Both Mike Vrabel and Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson are two names that have come up, with New England reportedly set to speak to both. Ian Rapoport reported on Tuesday that the club will meet with Vrabel on Thursday, while Albert Breer reported the request to speak with Johnson on Monday, but the exact timeframe isn’t known. However, it’s believed that both New England and Chicago are two teams Johnson is said to be interested in speaking with.
The next question is whether or not either coach will want to bring in his own personnel person, which sets up an interesting situation for Executive Vice President of Player Personnel, Eliot Wolf. Wolf, who was promoted to his current position following last year’s draft, is less than a year into his role and is coming off what was certainly a difficult offseason. The Patriots went into last spring with a significant amount of cash to work with, but the biggest surprise was the fact while they had plenty of money to spend, the bigger problem ended up being finding players who wanted to take it.
The negotiations with free agent receiver Calvin Ridley were probably the most eye-opening, with the Patriots finding themselves used as leverage throughout the process before Ridley eventually signed in Tennessee. What ultimately seemed to happen was that players in demand took what they felt were better opportunities elsewhere, while guys who didn’t have as much interest, players like Chukwuma Okorafor, K.J. Osborn, Nick Leverett, etc., were the ones left to swallow their pride and sign in New England.
When you’re forced to pick from guys no one else is really competing for, you don’t exactly end up with high-end talent.
Yet, that was they were left with. With Mac Jones, Bailey Zappe, and no offensive talent that made any available players to say, “Cool, I get to play with that guy?,” it wasn’t a great situation. With no one besides Demario Douglas of note at receiver, the Patriots also had no tight ends under contract last March. Hunter Henry, Pharoah Brown, and Mike Gesicki were all free agents at the end of last season, which left the cupboard pretty bare on that side of the football.
With the club getting shunned by free agents, the Patriots went ahead and turned their attention to trying to at least keep their own guys in-house. They re-signed Mike Onwenu, Kendrick Bourne, Hunter Henry, Kyle Dugger, Anfernee Jennings, and extended Rhamondre Stevenson.
Onwenu ended up shifting back and forth from guard to tackle, with the veteran finishing 2024 with a season he’ll probably admit wasn’t his best. Dugger had an up and down run on defense, while Bourne heads into the offseason as a player who seemed to struggle more mentally than physically after coming off of offseason knee surgery. Bourne found himself often lining up wrong, which is something you generally don’t like to see from a veteran player.
With the 2024 season now in the rear view, it certainly makes people question a couple of those signings. But at the time, each were considered significant contributors and it doesn’t change the fact that for every player lost, it’s yet another that needs to be replaced. Given the fact so many free agents seemingly said, “thanks, but no thanks,” the club did the right thing to avoid going into the season with even more holes they would have otherwise needed to fill.
Meanwhile, the biggest problem was the fact that after not being able to inject talent through free agency, the Patriots didn’t have the luxury of time when it came to the draft. The swing and miss on Jalen Polk after trading back with the Chargers was huge, with Polk’s selection coming at the expense of Ladd McConkey, who the Chargers took with that draft choice.
McConkey finished 2024 with 82 catches for 1,149 yards and seven touchdowns as a rookie, including 8 catches for 94 yards and two touchdowns against the Patriots in Week 17. That one game wasn’t far off from Polk’s entire season total of 12 catches, for 87 yards and two touchdowns.
As a whole, New England’s overall draft haul wasn’t terrible, but the number one problem was the fact they didn’t get an immediate impact from everyone they took. Obviously, they selected Drake Maye at #3 overall, with Polk (37th overall) as their round two selection. That was then followed by offensive tackle Caedan Wallace (Round 3, #68 overall) and offensive guard Layden Robinson (Round 4, #103 overall). From there, they finished by taking defensive back Marcellus Dial (Round 6, #180 overall), quarterback Joe Milton (Round 6, #193 overall) and tight end Jaheim Bell (Round 7, #231 overall).
Wallace, who played right tackle at Penn State, was a player who they felt had the potential to move to the left side given that he also practiced there in college. Having played with Olu Fashanu, who was taken by the Jets in Round one, he instead embraced his role on the other side at right tackle, which is where he ultimately ended up this season.
Still, it felt like they believed they’d have time to develop him with both Okorafor and Vederian Lowe on the roster. Instead, things were so bad in the early going that Wallace was thrust into that role, and the rookie also ending up suffering an ankle injury that sabotaged his first season.
Wallace finally returned over the final two games of the season at right tackle, but he remains a work in progress heading into 2025. Fellow lineman Layden Robinson had a solid first season, with the rookie growing into his role at guard and he did get better as the year progressed.
Baker, who made some bold predictions following his selection last April, never lived up to the benchmark he set for himself, albeit he’s a player who by all accounts feels like he really did put in the effort. Unlike Polk, it didn’t feel like Baker got frustrated or down, and he spent a lot of time playing special teams before seeing his snap total increase down the stretch.
He finally made his first NFL reception against the Bills Sunday, hauling in a 12-yard reception from Milton. Whether or not he can make some strides this offseason is the big question, with the former UCF standout likely set to see some significant competition heading into next season.
Dial spent the majority of the year on special teams but got some snaps on defense Sunday. He ended up having some good moments, which for a team lacking depth in the secondary, was a positive sign. He finished third on the team in tackles Sunday and he looked like he’s bulked up compared to where he was back in August.
Milton was obviously the person who finished on the biggest high note. He went out and certainly looked impressive in the finale, completing 22-of-29 (75.9%) for 241 yards and one touchdown, along with running one in for another.
His emergence was definitely a bright spot, especially as the club heads into the offseason that will likely see them part ways with Jacoby Brissett. Milton showed he may be ready to step into the back-up role, which does feel like it could be necessary with Maye already having missed time after suffering multiple concussions. As a result, his selection looks that much more brilliant.
Meanwhile, Bell, a versatile offensive talent from Florida State, saw single snap totals throughout much of the season, with both Austin Hooper and Henry carrying the load for the club while Bell saw most of his playing time come on special teams. The rookie finally saw some significant action Sunday and ended up hauling in a nice grab on a seam route that went for 19 yards.
Wolf admitted in a terrific piece by Henry McKenna for Fox Sports that he had hoped we would have seen more development among these guys, but things just didn’t work out that way.
“We’re 3-13, so not good enough. Let’s start there. We had a lot of needs. I would say that I guess personally, what I was expecting maybe a little bit more internal development, which is a good lesson certainly heading into next year, and that you can’t always rely on that,” Wolf said. “The rookie receivers didn’t have it really that much for us. And, you know, Polk was sort of in our estimation a plug-and-play. … Ultimately, to answer to your question, our record speaks for itself. We didn’t do enough.”
Overall, it wasn’t ideal, but the club comes out of this draft class with more of an “incomplete” grade for some of these players. Given the improvement coming off what had also been a widely-panned 2023 draft class, including players like Marte Mapu, Sidy Sow, and Kayshon Boutte, the hope is that we’ll see the same from a couple of these guys in 2025, which will likely give us a better sense of them after next season.
But Baker remains the biggest one to watch. Despite what we saw during the early part of the year when he was at least involved in the offense, he showed enough that his chances of a turnaround are definitely higher than that of Tyquan Thornton, who just physically couldn’t handle things in the NFL.
Still, Wolf is likely facing a key offseason when it comes to his future beyond this upcoming draft. He got a vote of confidence from Robert Kraft on Monday, with Kraft clearly pleased with his work rebuilding the scouting department and the implementation of a new grading system that they embraced after turning the page on the previous draft last April.
However, the state of the roster all year is what has many people frustrated, with the lack of free agent signings leaving them in rough shape all year along the offensive line, along with the lack of any explosive weapons around Maye.
Given the context behind why that happened, it didn’t help Wolf’s cause and Greg Bedard of the Boston Sports Journal believes that unlike Mayo, Wolf is absolutely qualified to do the job. The only question will be how he fits into whatever vision the next coach might have. He also believes a lot of the criticism of Wolf is a little unfair, although Kraft’s comments when it came to Wolf’s future was also something that Bedard wasn’t necessarily comfortable with.
“I will say this. As opposed to a lot of people on the coaching staff, Eliot Wolf, Alonso Highsmith, and Pat Stuart, who are the three at the top of the Patriots personnel Department, those three guys are all experienced and had the required experience for the jobs that they have,” said Bedard. “Eliot Wolf had been the number two in two different scouting departments, had interviewed for general manager positions. Alonso Highsmith is well thought of, really well respected. And Pat Stewart has been with not only the Patriots, previously, the Patriots, the Eagles, the Panthers. He was high up with the Panthers.”
“I know a lot of fans after this offseason think Eliot Wolf and his people are the devil and that they’re totally incompetent. I disagree with that. But this whole discussion about Eliot Wolf in the personnel department, this is the part of the press conference that left me uneasy because it sounds like now I just want to say it could be just Robert being Robert, the way he talked about things and they’re staying on. He said that they’re staying on. But that could mean just for now.”
Bedard also went on to say that the personnel department has been working on the college prospects since September, which is another reason why sweeping everyone out the door right away is something that isn’t exactly a good idea, either.
“What people have to realize is this is prime draft season,” said Bedard. “You have all-star games coming up. The senior Bowl we will be at is January 28th. You can’t just blow out a personnel department in January. People have to do the work. And there wasn’t really anybody else. If they had some great second in command that they had a lot of confidence in, then maybe you could fire Eliot Wolf, promote that guy. They don’t really have that right now.”
“But I am worried that if they had the idea of these guys are staying in place, that you’re scaring off some of the head coaching candidates. Because you’re going to hear this a bunch of times. Alignment. You want alignment between the head coach and the personnel Department, the general manager, in terms of they know the players that they want to look at, they see it the same way. I worry about that being a shock on marriage. However, let’s just say it’s Mike Vrabel. First of all, if Vrabel comes in here, I think he’s at the top of the food chain. I think everybody else is under him. I do think he’ll have the power to bring in at least one person.”
“There’s a guy, Ryan Cowden, who was with him in Tennessee, who is now with the Giants, who he is linked with, and he could bring them in, and then Vrabel and Cowden slowly get more and more power.
Bedard went on to say that he expects a situation where the final say will be with the head coach, and that he does expect whoever is hired to bring their own personnel person.
“It’ll be set up two different ways,” said Bedard. “Like, Vrabel is like Belichick, in terms of basically the buck stops with him, or you get both the GM and the head coach report to craft, which I think Albert Breer reported, that’s what will likely be the setup. But we’ll have to see.”
“My big thing is, if the Krafts are limiting them, first of all, it’s a cheap way out where they’re like, ‘No, we already have these guys in place.’ I do think that internally, I think they like Eliot and what he’s doing. They hadn’t had really a chance to implement their scouting method, grading system, all that. I think the hope is to give them one more year. But I think we’ll see a head coach bring in a personnel guy, and if it doesn’t go well, I think all of a sudden that guy gets the power going forward.'”
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