Here’s what New England Patriots Executive Vice President of Player Personnel, Eliot Wolf, had to say following the selection of Caleb Lomu on night one of the 2026 NFL Draft.
On his thoughts on Lomu:
“You know, big athletes like this are hard to come by, especially later in the first round like this. So I don’t want to set him up for any wild comparisons or anything like that, but just really happy that we were able to acquire him.”
On the fact that the majority of his college experience is on the left side and how open is he to having Lomu play on the right, and how he thinks he might approach that:
“Yeah, I mean, Will’s the left tackle. And like I said, Caleb has some versatility, so we feel like, some of the pro day workouts that he did were on the right side. And we were, we were comfortable with that. Again, he’s, he’s very athletic. So I don’t think it’ll – either side will be a problem for him.”
On whether or not guard might be a thought process in either of those spots:
“It’s a possibility. Physically and athletically, we think that’s something he could do. Like most rookie offensive linemen, he’s going to have to get stronger when he gets up here. But again, that’s something for Coach [Doug] Marrone and [John Houghtaling] and John Decoster to kind of decide and see what fits the best for us.”
If he can take us behind the trade, and if that’s an easy one to pull off, or if he’s sort of grinding the phones grinding the phones:
“Yeah, I would say we’ve been working the phones pretty regularly, not only today, but throughout the week, just trying to find different contingencies. Today was, I would say, busier just trying to feel out … I think this draft, I think a lot of people have said, is a little bit unique. There are a lot of trades. There continue to be a lot of trades. I think there was one right when when I was walking down here as well. But yeah, we were very active on the phones. Ryan [Cowden] and Matt Groh did a great job of kind of working the phones and trying to understand where the value was. And ultimately, with Caleb still on the board, we just felt like, giving up the extra pick to make sure that we could acquire him was important.”
On if he feels like there was a drop-off after Caleb at the tackle position:
“We did. Again, there’s still some good players at tackle and guard as well, but we felt like there was a drop-off, and we felt like, again, just this best player available type situation for us at that point.”
On if there were any surprises for him over the first round:
“I feel like I’ve probably been doing this long enough where nothing surprises me, but I think just the number of offensive linemen is interesting. And again, even with that, like the fact that Lomu was still available is pretty cool.”
On the fact six of the offensive tackles went in the first 21 picks and if that point in time, if he thought he had a chance at Lomu, and what he was considering at that point:
“We didn’t. The way the board fell, there were still a couple of players up there that, again, we were at that point, it was kind of best player available for us picking late in the round. And ultimately, just other names kept coming off, and we were continuing to call around and found a trade partner, and maybe an unlikely trade partner in Buffalo. And we were able to make it work.”
On with Morgan Moses, if they saw a benefit of bringing in Lomu to work with Will Campbell and Morgan Moses this year, and have that ability to develop with them?
“Yeah, absolutely. I mean, Morgan’s been here this week. He’s a tremendous leader and a great resource for young players. And Caleb’s young. I mean, he’s got a lot of things that he’s going to need to learn. He had a great offensive line coach at Utah in Jim Harding, and just really excited to be able to get to work with him.”
On when he resets the board at the end of the first, what goes into that, at least from a logistical perspective, at the end of the night here, kind of setting things up for day 2 tomorrow:
“Yeah, we’ll probably just do that in the morning. Probably … it’s good to remove yourself a little bit from it and just kind of focus in on what we need to do next. Obviously, we don’t have an early, Round 2 pick. So it’s going to be a lot like tonight, where we’re going to have to watch a lot of names come off that board before we can make something happen. So certainly understanding as the names have come off tonight, like where the strengths and weaknesses are for day 2.”
On what Caleb did during the draft process since his last football game was over to improve his stock, or what did he do in his eyes from January on:
“Yeah, I mean, obviously the testing was excellent. We interviewed him at the combine. That was great. He’s actually— this is actually kind of— we actually canceled his 30 visit because we didn’t— we had one scheduled and we just didn’t think he was going to factor in for us. We thought he’d be gone. So his agent, Chase Callahan, and Colin Roberts weren’t too excited about that, but they understood and, here we are. So it’s pretty exciting to be able to acquire him. But athletically, like some of the things at the pro day, the feet, the ability to play right tackle. And then obviously some of the zooms that we did with them where he showed the intelligence that we felt like he had some versatility and would be able to play more than one spot.”
On if there are other players he may have targeted as second-round possibilities that he’d be willing to move up the board to get if they’re in range:
“I think that’s a possibility. We like to have as many picks as we can, and obviously, we gave one up. So I don’t know how likely that is. But again, if it’s the right thing for us, which we felt like this one was, certainly wouldn’t rule it out.”
On how high he was on the board:
“We had a first-round grade on him.”
On if he can take us through how he found out about Mike [Vrabel]’s decision not to take part on day 3, and his reaction and how is that going to work without him there:
“Yeah, I just refer to the statement. That’s a personal thing that Mike’s dealing with and going through, and obviously, we support him. As far as the work is concerned on Saturday, not too worried about that. Just as far as the process that we have in place, the people that we have in place, and it’s going to be different without his presence there. But we feel really good about the people that we have in place to make up for it.”
On if he feels like they’ll be able to get in contact with him if anything arises:
“Yes.”
On what they’ll be missing without Mike:
“You know, the stability of him as a person. Some of the leadership, some of the presence. He does a nice job for us with the undrafted players. Obviously, he’s a tremendous recruiter. So that’s maybe something that we’ll be missing. But again, we’re very confident in the people we have with the process. The assistant coaches have done a tremendous job, as have the scouts preparing for day 3. And we’re excited about it.”
On if he’ll have final say on the picks Saturday:
“Yes.”
On the fact they canceled his 30 visit and what the call with him when they were drafting him was like:
“Oh, he was excited. I mean, he was excited. Actually, we have a cool feature in the draft room where we can take the draft board down and actually use FaceTime call. So we FaceTimed him. He was at a big party with his family and had the opportunity to meet his wife on the FaceTime call. He was pretty excited. So that was cool. And as far as canceling a 30-visit, it’s not uncommon. We try to get those scheduled beforehand, just because the dance cards kind of fill up. And those are usually done through the agent.”
On what he learned about him as a person through the pre-draft process:
“Just tremendously family-oriented. I mean, he’s a young guy, 21 years old, and he’s married. So, you know, obviously a strong foundation through his parents and everything. And the people at Utah really spoke highly of his character and the things that he’s all about.”
On the fact Mike [Vrabel] has said he likes to get a feel for linemen, as we know famously he did with Will last year, and if he didn’t come here for the 30 visit, Did that happen? And what was Mike’s feedback in that regard?
“I don’t think Mike ever had the opportunity to put hands on him. I’m sure that’ll be one of the first things that Mike does whenever he gets here. But no, we worked him out. We had scouts that worked him out that were there and, all positives on that end.”
On if he realistically sees him at 6’6¼” playing inside at guard:
“I think it’s possible. Again, you know, that’s maybe one that we’ll see a little bit more when he gets here, but just from a physical athletic standpoint, I don’t see a reason that he couldn’t.”
(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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Ian Logue is a Seacoast native and owner and senior writer for PatsFans.com, an independent media site covering the New England Patriots and has been running this site in one form or another since 1997.
