TRANSCRIPT: Eliot Wolf Pre-Draft Press Conference 4/13
Eliot Wolf Shares Patriots' Pre-Draft Strategy, Roster Insights, and Draft Class Assessment
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Here’s what New England Patriots Executive Vice President of Player Personnel Eliot Wolf had to say during his press conference on Monday, April 13, 2026.
OPENING STATEMENT:
“Welcome to the pre-draft press conference. I just want to take a moment to thank our scouting staff and our coaching staff, everyone in the football operation, analytics, video, that pours in countless hours to help us get to the right decisions. There’s a lot of work that goes into this, as you all know, but, really starting once, once this draft ends, starting in May, our scouts kind of turn the page and move on to next year. And so that’s kind of the process. We go to the NFS meetings in Florida. We do summer scouting. They go to training camps in August. They go to games, they go to practices. They’re away from their families and, as we, as we get into this thing, you know, cross-checks, All-Star Games, December meetings, Combine, pro days, we’re still, turning over stones and finding players and, reevaluating and making sure that the guys have the things that we want. And there’s a lot of reason for optimism. I mean, first of all, we’re here in this new building. That’s really exciting. The reaction from some of the players that are on the team that have come through here, as well as some of the pre-draft visit players that have come through, it’s been pretty cool.”
“Guys from big programs like Georgia and Oregon are commenting that have outstanding facilities, are commenting on the space that the Krafts designed and developed along with their group. It’s been really, really cool. We have a brand new draft room, which, what does that mean? Everywhere screens. We don’t have the little magnets anymore, which a lot of people are very excited about. But from a technology standpoint, it’s, state of the art. It’s first rate. It’s made things a lot easier. And just give a shout out to Mike Aronian, Keith and Shepard, and Ryan Cowden, who have done quite a bit of work and will continue to do quite a bit of work, formulating and making sure it’s exactly user-friendly and what we need, not only now, but also, once the draft starts. And just also wanted to acknowledge a couple of people here. I mentioned Ryan Cowden, but Alonzo Highsmith, Matt Groh, Richard Miller, Brian Smith, the entire college scouting department, and then Nancy Meyer obviously has meant a lot to this organization, a ton of people over the years. 51 years as a Patriot, this will be her last draft. She’s retiring, and the logistics and the background work that she does, we’re just so thrilled to have gotten the opportunity to work with her. With that, I will open it up to any questions about the draft.”
On if the board is a little bit finalized or how close to finalized is it:
“It is not finalized. The college scouts are actually here now. We restarted this round of draft meetings over the weekend, not this past weekend, but two weekends ago. And we’re, you know, we’re still tweaking. We’re not through every position this round yet. But they’re doing some breakout groups right now while I’m down here working through clumps of players and just kind of making sure that we have those guys in the right order. So I would say the hay is not quite in the barn yet.”
On if he feels like they have a chance to move up the board and if this is the type of draft where it would make sense to do so:
“To move up? Yeah, I mean, we’re open to anything. You know, whatever way we can possibly improve the team, we’re open to. We have 11 picks, most of those are kind of later in the draft, but we do have some flexibility with those 11 picks. And, I think it’ll depend a little bit on how the board falls. If we view that there’s a player that is, whether he’s falling or there’s somebody that we think we need to go get, we’ll be open to those opportunities.”
On the fact it seemed like the last 2 years they probably had a good idea who they were taking with Drake [Maye], and Will [Campbell] and how different has this year been planning for the first round:
“Yeah, there’s, there’s 1 or 2 more guys that are going to be off the board by the time we’re picking at 31 unless we trade up into the top 5, Karen [Guregian]. But, you know, it’s tougher to predict, but it’s not different than, again, last year we picked at the beginning of the second round. So, it’s still the same process, and we’re still evaluating all those players. Like, we, not this round of meetings. Like, we didn’t look at [Fernando] Mendoza this time around, but we’re evaluating everybody, because you never know exactly what’s going to happen.”
On the fact that it’s been written that this year’s overall draft is not as talented as other drafts, but within this draft, if there are any positions that he thinks there really is exceptional quality:
“Yeah, I mean, I think every draft is different. And I saw a pool quote that I actually said that I did say it, but there was a ‘but’ at the end of it. And it was basically, ‘I think if you had to look historically, like this draft probably isn’t great.’ That was what was taken. But if we do our job and we do everything right, like, we’re going to be able to get a good player with every pick. And that’s our intention. I feel that way about every draft. No matter what happens, there’s always avenues and ways to improve the team. About the positions, I mean, I think it’s a pretty strong draft on the offensive and defensive line. You know, secondary, maybe not as much. Receiver and tight end are pretty good in comparison to some of the recent years. So yeah, we’re excited about some of these opportunities, and there are some matchups to some positions of need for us.”
On the fact that in ’24 he said he was implementing a new scouting system and it’s going to take some time, and where he is now in year 3 in implementing this new process:
“Yeah, I mean, I think it wasn’t necessarily a whole new scouting system. Like the grading scale changed a little bit. Again, we’re still looking for big, fast, strong, tough, the same things everybody’s looking for. I think just having another year of working with Coach Vrabel and his staff and Ryan and, we have two first-year area scouts, just getting those guys acclimated. I think that it’s just the time on task and the ability to continue to work together and understand that we’re all on the same page and pulling together in the right direction.”
On how he’s looking at this class of quarterbacks and if he’s looking to the later rounds to fill that third slot eventually:
“Yeah, I mean, we’ve evaluated all the quarterbacks. We’re continuing to do that. We’re looking at some pro options as well, and it’s really— it was really less about Josh [Dobbs] specifically and more about the development and growth that we saw from Tommy DeVito in his practice reps last year. He was, as Josh was as well, a great resource for Drake, and we’ll continue to evaluate the position, whether that’s draft, a pro free agent, or a college free agent, or however it ends up falling.”
On the fact that at the combine he said he anticipated Morgan Moses coming back for 2026, and if that’s still the expectation:
“Yes. That’s, that’s our expectation. I texted Morgan, probably it was probably closer to the combine, just saying ‘Hi.’ But I know Coach Vrabel is in contact with him. And yeah, no indication that he’s looking to move on. And I think he’s excited about coming back up here and getting started.”
On the fact best player available is probably what he’d like to do with each of the picks, but how important is positional value and factoring in the future at some positions:
“Yeah, I mean, I think it’s easy to look at a piece of paper or a depth chart right now and just kind of see what our needs are right this second, but you also have to factor in who’s going to be a free agent next year because this isn’t just a one-year filler. This is a long-term commitment, especially with the early-round guys that you think are going to be there. So I like to look at it more along lines of, ‘What don’t we need?’ Because there’s a lot less of that when you look at it that way. Like centers is always a good one. Like if you have two really good centers, well, you’re not going to draft a third center because it just, it all, everything has to work together. I think about it as what can we eliminate from consideration, especially when you’re picking down at 31. And at the end of these rounds, it’s a little bit harder to predict exactly who’s going to be there. So you just have to make sure that you’re going to pick a good football player at any point.”
On what his sense is of who’s going to be there when they’re picking around 31?
“I think the right guy will be there. No, – that’s Tim Terry, who I used to work with in Green Bay, used to say that all the time – I think it’s tough to predict. Like, if you just go look at the board right now and just say, ‘Hey, you know, who are the 30 names that are not going to be there?’ Like, it’s pretty difficult. So we’ll just kind of continue to gather information and continue to evaluate and explore options, whether that’s going up, going back, whatever the case may be.”
On if he thinks that they have improved this team from the one that walked off the field at the Super Bowl to this point in the offseason:
“Yeah, I think so. You know, with some of the free agent moves that we’ve done – primarily that because we haven’t done a lot of other things – but yeah, I think so. And then we’ll continue to supplement it. We’ve definitely increased our flexibility in terms of what exactly the needs on paper are just for this year. But yeah, I think, I think we’ve improved.”
On the fact they have, between age of some starters, expiring contracts, or ballooning payments, and the drafts previous to last year, which was great, which didn’t really yield a lot, they might have a lot of depth issues and if they’re looking at really, ‘We’ll concentrate on the first 4 picks,’ but kind of could use all 11 to take their shots and build depth at different positions:
“Yeah, I mean, I think depth is important, obviously. I think the more picks that you have, the better chances you have of hitting on players. It puts … we have four 6s right now, if we had one 6, it probably puts more pressure on that player to, or push more pressure on us to have that player be successful. But I think every team is different in terms of where the depth is. I think we have depth at some positions and would like to improve depth at others. And I don’t think that’s unique.”
On what he’d like to see from here as far as what conversations he’d like to have so that when they’re get ready to go, they’re good to go in A, B, C, D, E, F?
“Yeah, really, I would say kind of combining information. Like, we have 4 players here today on pre-draft visits and just making sure, getting with the coaches and seeing how those went. We Zoom, or the coaches Zoom a lot of players to try to get a feel for them. ‘How does this guy fit into my room? Is he going to be able to learn multiple positions? Is he just going to be a one-position guy, you know, year one?’ And just kind of having— continuing to compile all that information and make sure that we’re drafting the guys that are going to have the best chance to succeed.”
On if there are any updates on where things stand with Christian Gonzalez? And if they’re keeping the door open with the Eagles for AJ Brown?
“No Gonzalez update other than I’ll continue to publicly say that we want Christian here. And again, he’s under contract, so we would expect that. But as far as players on other teams, again, going to keep the door open to anything that we think may improve our roster, whether that’s with the player you mentioned or other players.”
On the fact that there’s a report that this year might be more of a trade-heavy draft and if that’s something that he’s already sensed:
“Yeah, I mean, again, I think that can sometimes be tough to predict. You know, there’s always waves within a draft. Like, I think it was maybe the 6th round last year, there was like a rush of trades, like 4 right in a row. I don’t know how people know that. Like, I don’t know if the report that you saw was more first round? Like, maybe it’s true for the first round. I’ve already heard that there’s— no one’s called us yet – but I’ve already heard that there’s teams that have been calling around looking to move up kind of more on the front end of the draft. But I think we’ll just kind of continue to monitor it and see what happens.”
On how involved Mike [Vrabel] has been in the pre-draft meetings:
“Very involved. I mean, business as usual. He’s been in there. I would say he’s been in there with us probably, this round of meetings, probably a little bit more than he was last year, just because I know, you know, there’s the coaching staff — this is me putting words in his mouth— probably more comfortable just where things stand from that standpoint. But he’s been in there. He’s been contributing. He’s watched a ton of the players. I think he tries to watch every player that, we give each position coach, he watches that whole— they call it the coaches list – and so he has an opinion on these guys, and it’s helpful because sometimes there’s players that the scouts like, me included, and he’ll be like, ‘Well, this is the reason that maybe this guy’s not the best fit for us.’ And so, we can again continue to compile all the information together.”
On the fact he ran down some of the positions in the draft earlier and mentioned at the Combine looking at a linebacker in the draft, and what his thoughts are on that position as a whole in this year’s class:
“Yeah, I think it’s solid. I think it’s probably a little bit similar to the way it was last year. Maybe for me at least, I thought there were— I thought it was going to be a little bit better than maybe it’s come out, but I do think it’s a good position day 3 from a depth standpoint. I think there’s a lot of players that you could justify using a day 3 pickup.”
On the fact he mentioned the 30 visits, having players in, and if they max out on those, and how important are those:
“Yeah, we will use all 30 and plus because you get to, we get BC and UConn, and some of those guys that didn’t come in for local day have come in separately. It’s very important. And we bring guys in for a variety of reasons, whether it’s to get medical, to get him in front of Mike, if it’s a guy we like that doesn’t have a lot of red flags, like, hey, ‘Mike’s gonna love this guy.’ We do some of that – don’t tell Mike that. Whether if there’s some questions about the character or they’re learning or the fit or the position fit, or, again, like one that I mentioned earlier, like, ‘We think this guy is definitely going to be able to play X receiver, but we want to bring him in and make sure that we think he can play multiple spots and how early could that be?’ So there’s a variety of reasons that we bring guys in, and they’ve been great this year. I mean, we haven’t eliminated anyone, as we’ve done in the past. So it’s been, it’s been positive.”
On the analytics and how those play into what they do, and how he has continued over the years to have the numbers come in:
“So we hired Max Mulitz, who was previously with the Dolphins, and he’s working in conjunction with the personnel department. And he’s been in all of our meetings and he’s been great. Every player has a profile. The thing I like particularly about Max is he’s not so married to the data that he can’t … Like, we’ll retort him and say like, ‘Well, what about this?’ And he has enough common sense to be like, ‘Well, yeah, that makes sense as a reason that the model gives this projection. Let me adjust it a little bit.’ So it’s been pretty cool to kind of integrate that into our, into our process. And really like anything, it helps with outliers. You know, if he’s got a model that says the guy should be a 4th rounder and all of us have him in the 7th round, like to me that is cause for us to go back and ask questions. ‘Why is that the case? Do we need to sit down and watch more film on this guy?’ And to me, that’s the role. It’s to help you get as much information as you can to make the right decisions.”
On what they have on the edge, he talked at the Combine about how that’s a position of need, they’ve signed Draymond Jones, and it feels like there’s some different body types though in this year’s draft class at that position and if they prefer for what they have right now in terms of complementing what they have, or if he feels like they need that smaller, faster guy who might be better on third down or better to have the bigger body:
“I never want a smaller guy. No, faster guy. I said I never want a smaller guy. No, we could complement our room with some speed. I think that’s evident. Dre’Mont [Jones] and Harold [Landry] and Elijah [Ponder] and some of the other guys we have, they all have their skill sets. We would like to get faster. You know, Dre’Mont’s a guy that can play across the line, run games. I mean, he can sneaky beat you with speed, but that’s probably not his bread and butter. And so, you know, that’s an area that we’re looking, again, looking to try to improve the depth on the roster.”
(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.)
Eliot Wolf states the 2026 NFL Draft class is strong on the offensive and defensive line. Receiver and tight end positions are also considered pretty good compared to some recent years, matching some of the Patriots' needs.
No, Eliot Wolf confirmed the Patriots' draft board is not finalized. College scouts are still tweaking evaluations and working through player groupings to ensure the right order, with more meetings ongoing.
Mike Vrabel is very involved in the Patriots' pre-draft meetings, even more so this year. He watches many players, contributes opinions, and helps compile information to ensure the best fit for the team.
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