NFL INSIDER: Vrabel and Wolf Potential Issues ‘A Little Ridiculous’
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With new head coach Mike Vrabel now in the fold, there have been questions when it comes to the power dynamic in terms of his control over personnel, the draft, and how much of a say he’ll have over those decisions.
Vrabel did bring former Titans personnel executive Ryan Cowden with him, with Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer reporting on Tuesday that Cowden accepted a position in their personnel department, and he’s expected to assume the #2 role behind Wolf. That definitely sets up an interesting situation as Vrabel begins his tenure here in New England.
Vrabel and Wolf have seemingly already hit it off, with Vrabel speaking high of him during his first press conference with the media on Monday, and he reiterated that again on Tuesday during an appearance on The Greg Hill Show where Vrabel said the two had already been working for the last couple of hours ahead of joining the hosts on air.
“Oh yeah,” said Vrabel when asked if it was good to be back. “I mean, already, Eliot and I have been meeting here for a couple of hours and just trying to go through the roster and have a lot of meetings and get through the staff and the support staff and everything that’s critical and the scouts and get to know them and see where they’re going and how we can help and support them.”
Still, the bigger question is whether or not there might potentially be any friction when the time comes between Wolf and Vrabel, along with who will be the one making the final call when it comes to a given player. Most reports have indicated that it will be Vrabel who will ultimately have the final say when it comes to personnel decisions, with some wondering if that will be an issue with Wolf if and when that situation arises.
Albert Breer appeared on Arbella Early Edition on NBC Sports Boston Tuesday night and said that knowing the way Wolf operates, he doesn’t believe it will be an issue.
“I think on paper, it’s going to remain the same as it was last year, which is both Eliot Wolf and Mike Vrabel reporting directly to ownership,” said Breer when asked about the power structure. “But if you’re looking at the way it’s going to be set up, I think Mike’s going to have a heavy hand in every area.”
“I think the mistake people are making is this is going to go back to the way Bill Belichick ran it, which is impossible for anybody to do that at a high level in 2025, which I think is part of why the roster fell apart the way that it did. People in this market haven’t been exposed to other models. That model doesn’t really exist anywhere, anymore. It’s going to take a strong personnel department, for sure, to rebuild the thing and Mike’s going to have a major say in personnel. But to say that he’s going to be going in and breaking down 400 college players and setting up a draft board, I think, is a little ridiculous.”
Breer added that when it comes to whether Wolf would insist on a player or potentially push a prospect on Vrabel, Breer said that based on how Wolf came up in Green Bay and how he’s worked previously, that’s not at all the case. He explained that Wolf is instead focused on setting the table for the head coach as they make that decision.
“I think Eliot Wolf is not going to fight Mike Vrabel on things,” said Breer. “So, I think that’s got to be your baseline for all of this. I don’t think you’re going to have these massive arguments. I think the way Eliot Wolf came up and the way that people in that Packer system come up is, ‘You’re there to set the table for the coaches’ and say, ‘OK, here’s what we see in these players, here’s why the fit what we are, here’s where they would fit into the team, and let’s discuss how to get this done.'”
“Eliot’s Wolf’s not the type of personality … and Eliot’s not going to come in there and shove players down Mike Vrabel’s throat. It’s just not going to happen. So this idea that there’s going to be some sort of big feud between personnel and coaching, I think is a little ridiculous.”
The next question will be where Cowden fits into all of this. Breer said his personality is similar to Wolf’s, in that he does tend to be a person who also works well with others and is able to navigate through difficult situations. The bigger challenge will likely be how the dynamic between he and Wolf develops, although there is a connection and understanding of New England’s system, which Vrabel is also familiar with.
Still, Breer pointed out that Wolf and Cowden will also have to figure things out with each other along the way in order for this all to ultimately work.
“His friends will tell you, he’s loyal to a fault,” said Breer of Cowden. “But he can be prickly. If he isn’t in on you, then it can be a problem. So I think it’s going to be on Eliot and Ryan to figure this out. I think it’s going to be on Eliot and Ryan to work through whatever entanglements there might be in melding the way one guy does things, the way the other guy does things.”
“Now, I would say this. Mike has talked to a bunch of people doing his background work over the last few days on Eliot Wolf and there is a connection there in that Mike worked with Chad Brinker in Tennesssee. Chad Brinker is now the President of Football Operations in Tennessee. He was with Eliot for a lot of years in Green Bay. So Mike did get to learn the Packer system of grading while he was in Tennessee from Brinker. And so he’s got some background and he’s gotten to learn some of it.
“I think so much of it is going to, ‘OK, Eliot, Ryan, you guys need to figure out how this is going to work. You guys need to figure out your relationship. Eliot, you’re #1. Ryan, you’re #2, you have four months from now until the draft,’ – because generally, if there are going to be changes, it’ll happen after the draft – ‘you have four months to really figure this out and create a good department that’s going to work well underneath you.’ And underneath them, they have a bunch of guys who have been here for a lot of years that came up in a very coach-centric system to begin with.”
“So it doesn’t mean it’s going to work like it did under Bill, but those guys are used to, ‘OK, here’s the coaches vision, and here’s how we make that vision come to life.”
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