TRANSCRIPT: Eliot Wolf with Michael Felger 3/31
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Here’s what New England Patriots Executive Vice President of Player Personnel, Eliot Wolf, had to say during his interview with Mike Felger on Monday on 98.5 The Sports Hub.
All right. Welcome back to the Owners’ Meetings in Palm Beach. We’re now joined by Elliot Wolf of the Patriots. I forgot the exact title. I’m sorry.
“Executive Vice President of Player Personnel.”
Okay.
“Scout.”
Slash Scout.
“Slash Scout.”
Thanks for taking the time. How’s this offseason going?
“It’s going great. Getting Vrabel in, getting everything rolling, working together with the new staff. It’s been energizing.”
Different?
“Different. Yeah, different. A little bit more streamlined, and communication has been good.”
How more streamlined, when you say that?
“A little bit more. [Jerod] Mayo staff was good. Just this staff has come together, and they’ve all worked together before. So there’s been a less of a getting to know you period of time.”
How about style of what player they want? Let me just start on defense. Yeah. Vrabel’s Changing the defense, right?
“Sure. Fairly similar. Again, with an emphasis on speed at the linebacker position. Really speed overall. Team speed has been something that we’ve been looking to address for a period of time, and we’ve put together a group of guys that we think can do that.”
How about the guys up front? The big free agent signing, would he be someone that you would have signed for Jerod Mayo’s defense? Someone that light up front?
“Yeah, I think so. I think Milton is a versatile player that could have functioned in any defense.”
Really? Could he have two-gaped in there?
“I think he could have two-gapped in there. I think it would have looked a little bit different, but I think he is a good fit for what Vrabel wants to do up front as well.”
Okay, so I talked to Mike earlier and talked about the change in defense, how 3-4 is really side to side, and he wants to be more … he didn’t say upfield. I’m saying upfield. But is that the difference?
“There’s a difference there, and we’re going to be multiple. It’s not just straight up 3-4. A lot of teams are in the 4-2-5 now with plain nickel, 85, 90 % of the time against the three wide receiver look. So we’ll see how that manifests itself. There’s talk about teams wanting to go back to two back, and we’ll see. But we feel like playing a little bit more upfield and attacking a little bit more, being aggressive, speed and violence is something that’s been preached.”
So how do you scout violence?
“Just knock back, intensity, effort, play style, strength, and explosion at the point of attack, in addition to range and speed at the second level.”
Is there anything like that on offense, or would you say it’s more status quo, or how is Josh [McDaniels] different than what Alex Van Pelt was?
“Just having the advantage of having to work with Josh for a couple of years before, knowing what types of players he likes. Obviously, versatility is huge. Then being able to be multiple, both in the run and pass game. We’re not just going to run zone, we’re not just going to run gap. We’re going to have guys that can move a little bit, but also have to be able to knock guys off the line of scrimmage.”
That’s the big question, I guess, upfront. What was last year? What was the idea? Was it more of the zone, more of the classic West Coast zone blocking, or …?
“Yeah, that was the idea, was to major in the zone and kind of run some gap and duo off of that, which we ended up being a little bit better of a duo team last year, so we ran more of it.”
What’s going to be this year?
“We shall see.”
You say both, but when you’re go in to scout a player, you have to have one thing in mind, don’t you?
“Not necessarily. Again, in a perfect world, you have guys that can do both. Now, maybe that’s not quite as realistic. Having a guy like [Mike] Onwenu is probably going to be the right guard. Having a guy like him that’s maybe not quite as movement-oriented. He’s a good athlete, but he’s not a runner. So we’ll just do whatever we think we can to gain yards that week.”
Again, Elliot Wolf joining us here from the owners meetings. When you say it’s more seamless with the coaches, do you have a better rapport with these coaches than you did last year?
“No, I wouldn’t say that. I had good rapport with both staffs. Really, what I meant by that was with Ryan Cowden coming in who’s worked with Vrabel and Vrabel getting, I think, nine coaches it was that he’s worked with previously – might have been a couple more than that – there’s maybe a little bit less of a getting to know you period of time. And the coaches that are here, as well as Ryan with us, can kind of translate and, ‘Hey, this is what Mike’s looking for here,’ or ‘This is the way that we’re going to do things.’ And it’s just been a little bit more seamless in that regard.”
He’s pounded culture, and I have to protect the football team, again, as a phrase that he’s used. How does that impact you?
“Yeah. I mean, I think we’re all a part of it. We’re all a part of the culture. We’re all a part of what we’re building here. And his energy and eagerness and authenticity to get to know everybody on the staff has been really good and rewarding. We all feel like we’re working together towards a common goal.”
Can you give me an example of where that manifests itself?
“I mean, I think the first day, he was down in the pro scouting room watching film with those guys. Right after his intro presser, he was in there watching film and just going through like, ‘Hey, here’s some things we look for at the linebacker position. Here’s some things we look for at the fullback position.’ Just kind of going through it that way.”
Again, Elliot Wolf joining us here from the owner’s meetings. Is it awkward at all? Because you still have the title, you still have the say, but new coaches in town, he’s going to have to get what he wants, but you still have the final say. Has that been awkward at all?
“No, it hasn’t been.”
How could it not be awkward?
“And I’m sure it will be at some point. But we’ve seen things. It’s not like we agree on every little thing, but the disagreements that we’ve had have been productive, and they’ve resulted in some good dialog. I think if you get a staff together where everyone agrees on everything, it doesn’t necessarily… That’s not productive either. So I think as long as we keep the important thing, the important thing, and that’s winning football games, it’s going to go well.”
So I have to say some of the things to you that I’d say when you’re not here, or else people will kill me, and it’s only fair. But when Vrabel got the job, I said, if you were here, it would be to turn off the lights, retrieve the faxes, and pick up guys from the airport. It’s more than that?
“Yeah, I certainly hope so. I don’t even know where the fax machine is if we have one. No, again, it’s been good. We’ve all been working together. And I think our free agency class, again, no one’s trying to win in March, but the amount of needs that we had, we feel like we filled some of those and made the team better. So I think we’re just heading in the right direction.”
But you know what I’m driving at. This happens on a lot of teams. It happens all the time. A new coach gets a job, scouting staff still in place. There’s that transition. So you say it’s not awkward, but I just wonder how it can’t be.
“Yeah. And maybe I had some of those reservations at first, but it hasn’t been so far. And again, we’re still in the honeymoon phase here in the offseason where things are going well, and we haven’t played a game yet, and no adversity has struck, and we’ll see what happens.”
So draft night, you’re at the table. Time to turn in the card. Who turns in the card?
“Brian Smith will turn in the card because you type it in now.”
Who gives it to him?
“Again, I think picking at four, we’ll know, hopefully beforehand, kind of how it’s going to go in front of us. It’s a little bit different when you’re picking at 15 or 30. But at the end of the day, we’re going to do what’s best for the team. Mike and I and Ryan and everyone have had conversations already about what that’s going to look like.”
Do you feel that there were mistakes made last year, and if so, what do you think you need to correct?
“There were certainly mistakes made last year. We were 4-13. Just learning from those mistakes and trying to head in the right direction, I felt like I thought maybe we were going to have a little bit more internal development on the roster than we had. And so this year, I think you see that manifesting itself in a little bit more aggressive approach in free agency and maybe pivoting to some players that maybe weren’t the upper echelon guys that we shot for last year and just pivoting and making sure we fill as many needs as we possibly can.”
So when you say internal development, you said that at the end of last season, some people, me, interpreted that as kind of a shot at the coaching staff last year, that they didn’t develop the players the way you would have liked.
“No, I wouldn’t say that. I just think it’s sometimes you go into year two and you expect your rookie class to get better. And again, it goes back to the old thing like, ‘hope is not a strategy,’ and we maybe misevaluated some of those guys, but some of those guys are still here, and we’re still looking forward to seeing if they can … for the light to turn on and move in that direction.”
Let’s start with Polk. Where do you think he is? You called him a plug and play player. Do you still think he is?
“I thought he was at the time. Obviously, again, I brought it up before, we moved him around a little bit and put him in a position where we asked him to do a lot. He was trying to learn all three positions at once, which can be difficult for anyone, let alone a rookie. But we’re still excited about what he can do. You see the talent. You saw it on the practice field as the season…”
The practice field.
“As the season wore on. Again, he’s overcoming a rehab and an injury right now that we’re hopeful that he can be a contributor for us.”
Are there players – I assume there are – and is he one of them that the practice field doesn’t always translate to the game field, and there’s a trick there?
“Yeah, I wouldn’t say he’s one of them yet. I just think it’s about getting comfortable and getting confident in the offense and what he’s doing. He’s demonstrated the maturity level to take accountability for what happened for him last year, and he’s excited about moving forward.”
How about [Caedan] Wallace? Is he a right tackle or a left tackle? What are you going to do with him?
“I think right tackle is probably his best position, but we like his versatility, his athleticism. He certainly has the feet to play tackle. He has the size to play guard. We’ll just see where he fits in and see where it goes.”
Okay. Looking forward, I think Mike said this morning that you guys see Campbell as a tackle, even with those arms?
“Tackle or guard. I think he can play either.”
Tackle or guard. Because, again, I’m not a scout, but you read those measurables and you read … the word is that there hasn’t been a guy that’s made all pro or pro-ball, even, with that left tackle, with arms that size or wingspan that size, 25 years and counting. How much do you factor that in?
“I didn’t know that. Again, I still …”
There’s reams of stats like that. There hasn’t been a left tackle come out of the combine with those measurables, hasn’t been a pro-bowl left tackle, hasn’t been an all pro, going back decades.
“Sure. I think you go back to the film, and he’s blocking guys, and we like him as a player, so we’ll see what that means on draft day, if anything. But I do think he can play tackle.”
If you draft Hunter, is he a one-way player or a two-way player?
“That’ll be up to the coaching staff. I think from my perspective, having him play one way would maybe … I don’t want to say waste, but sort of not be maximizing what he can be. I think wherever he goes, my guess is he’ll be majoring in one position and minoring in the other.”
When you say take away, I would look at that and say that he’s the most confident, he’s the most himself when he’s playing both ways. I would wonder if a team would want to get that out of him, that swagger, for lack of a better word.
“Yeah, I think so. I think he’s playing at Colorado – no offense to anyone – playing at Colorado is a little different than playing up here. At 180 pounds or whatever he is, I think it’d be asking a lot to have him play full-time both ways. But that’s not to say, with any player, if they can handle something, we’ll have them do it.”
One more, Mason Graham. Would he have been too light last year? And is he just right this year in terms of size and his position? Or how do you view him? Do you view him as big enough to play inside there in the NFL?
“Yeah, I definitely think he’s big enough to play inside in the NFL in either scheme. Maybe slightly better fit for the scheme that we’re going to be running. But he’s an explosive player. He’s good with his hands. He’s light on his feet, and he was productive for Michigan.”
Have you gotten calls on the pick?
“Nothing official. No. We’ve had a few conversations, but a little bit early for that.”
So no one’s calling around?
“No.”
Do you worry that no one’s going to call, that this is this kind of draft. Do you think that this draft is different than last year or some other years?
“Yeah, I think it was a little bit different. Obviously, with the quarterbacks, the plethora of quarterbacks last year, made it unique. I don’t know that there’s that this year. The two quarterbacks that are going to go high are really good players, but just the volume, what was it, six last year that went the first round? I don’t think we’ll see that again for a while.”
If you were in the market for a quarterback, how would you look at Sanders?
“I think he’s a really good player. I had the opportunity to watch him play live against Oklahoma State last year, and I mean, they crushed Oklahoma State, but he was pretty dialed in from the jump. You could tell even pregame, he was locked in and ready to go. And he’s got the arm strength, and he’s been a winner for those guys.”
Eliot Wolf joining us here. Just a couple more. Obvious from the outside, looked like there was a focus on defense at the expense of offense so far in the offseason. Is that intentional?
“I think it’s just the way the free agent class who was available, how that ended up. I don’t know that signing defensive players is at the expense of offense. I feel like we’ve helped both sides of the ball, maybe the defense a little bit more just because of the volume of players we signed over there. But again, there’s still avenues to add players through trade, waiver wire, veterans becoming available, and the draft.”
I’m sorry to cut you off, but you know what I’m saying. So now we are looking at waivers and cuts as opposed to premium free agents or early free agents. Is that just the way the board fell? That’s just the way it fell?
“Yeah, I think so. When you look at our needs on offense, it’s no secret that wider receiver and tackle were probably our two biggest needs. And we were able to sign Morgan Moses and Stefon Diggs and Mack Hollins. So we certainly addressed those things. And again, we’ll continue to take every avenue to try to make the team better.”
Are you guys planning for Diggs to be ready week one? As was sort of said when you made the signing? I don’t know if Diggs was as strong as that when he spoke last week, but how do you view that?
“I think that’s just a question for our medical staff. I know they were really encouraged about where he was, and again, we’re not going to have him overdo it, but if he’s able to be ready for week one, that’d be great for us.”
What position do you see him playing? Do you see him playing something inside?
“I think he can play some inside. That was one of the things we liked was the versatility. He can play all three spots. He’s smart enough to play all three spots. He’s super competitive. He talked to us a little bit about how he thought playing inside a little bit more last year was challenging for him, and he enjoyed that. He certainly lived up to the challenge.”
Is Drake May involved in the process at all? You talk to him, we’re looking at this guy, we’re looking at that guy, etc?
“A little bit. I think Vrabel has had some of those conversations with him. I didn’t have any conversations with him in regards to that, but I know he was calling some players once free agency started on that Wednesday afternoon. He called a few guys to talk to them a little bit and just see where they were at.”
Okay. Final question, Elliot, do you listen to the radio? Do you have Twitter? Do you hear what’s said?
“I don’t listen to the radio too much. I have a Twitter, but I don’t follow too many Patriots accounts.”
It’s ugly out there.
“Yeah. Well, again, going 4-13, it probably should be ugly out there. But again, with Vrabel and some of these new players coming in, we’re excited about the future.”
And again, in fairness, I’m part of the problem, but not part of the problem. I mean, call it for what it is, 4-13 and 4-13. And the draft board after Maye doesn’t look good. And Chuks Okorafor, let me ask you about Chuks Okorafor. So he’s back in the league, and he lasted like 10 minutes with you. What happened last year?
“Yeah, he didn’t want to play last year, and there’s nothing we can do about that. In some ways, it was probably good for him to tell us that. So he wasn’t just taking up a roster spot the rest of the year.”
Okay. Thank you for coming by. We appreciate it.
“All right. Thank you.”
(EDITOR’S NOTE: This transcript was done based on the available footage and is subject to typographical errors. If you spot anything, please let me know in the comments below.)
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