We have recognized for at least a thirty day period that, even though Patriots director of scouting Eliot Wolf presently has final say above personnel choices and will be working as New England’s de facto typical manager via the impending draft, the staff plans to perform interviews for a substantial-position front office executive soon after the draft is around. All those interviews could be for a GM, a retain the services of that would shunt Wolf aside or possibly out of the firm entirely.
As our Sam Robinson pointed out in the report connected earlier mentioned, Wolf has overhauled the prospect analysis procedure that the Pats employed during Invoice Belichick‘s prolonged tenure, and for New England to give Wolf the electrical power to do so only to seek the services of a various choice-maker write-up-draft would be fairly stunning. Equally, we had listened to that the Patriots, with Wolf at the helm, were adopting a “Packer-based mostly structure” wherein the personnel office’s enter is valued extra really than the head coach’s. It was also reported that Wolf was closely concerned in the head coaching process this offseason, as nicely as the lookup to fill out new HC Jerod Mayo‘s staff.
All of that details to the Patriots in the end offering Wolf the formal GM title and possessing the new staffer operate below him, specially considering that the club is entrusting Wolf with the very important endeavor of getting the 2024 draft appropriate (the Pats have the No. 3 total decide on and as a result have a golden chance to find their following franchise quarterback). Owner Robert Kraft has gained constructive comments on Wolf and a short while ago claimed, “I’m enthusiastic with what I have found so much, and we’ll consider following the draft and see how which is long gone and decide the place we go from there.”
On the other hand, groups like the Jets, Texans, and Payments fired GMs after the draft in the late 2010s, and the Chiefs fired John Dorsey in the summertime of 2017. So it is however possible that the Patriots go in a diverse course, with Phil Perry of NBC Sports Boston — on a new episode of Tyler Dunne’s Go Long podcast — confirming that New England will perform GM interviews following the draft. In Perry’s perspective, “it’s wild” that the human being who is in charge of leading the Pats via this vital minute in franchise history is not confirmed to be in the GM seat when the draft is about, but that is what he has been listening to for months.
If that had been to take place, the team would need to comply with the Rooney Rule, which necessitates that two external minority candidates be interviewed for the GM article. Perry acknowledges that, as referenced earlier mentioned, the group could only increase a new govt to enhance Wolf, rather than switch him. Continue to, offered the evident uncertainty of Wolf’s posture, Dunne believes that the scion of Pro Football Corridor of Fame exec Ron Wolf will in truth draft a quarterback with the No. 3 selection — which could be what Kraft wants — and will not trade out of the slot. Dunne also believes that UNC passer Drake Maye will be Wolf’s choose (the overall podcast episode deserves a hear, significantly for Patriots admirers).
Both of those Perry and former Vikings GM Rick Spielman (by means of Mike Reiss of ESPN.com) suggest that it would have to have an overpay to convince Wolf & Co. to deal the No. 3 choose rather than keeping place and picking a prospect like Maye, LSU’s Jayden Daniels, or Michigan’s J.J. McCarthy. Perry indicates that if the Vikings — who are armed with equally the Nos. 11 and 23 alternatives in 2024 and have been closely linked to a trade-up endeavor — want New England’s pick, they would have to element with both of those of their 2024 initial-rounders as effectively as their top rated alternatives in the 2025 and 2026 drafts. Spielman thinks 3 initial-rounders and a second would be the “setting up point” in negotiations, and that the Patriots could push for a top-tier player like receiever Justin Jefferson or still left deal with Christian Darrisaw as portion of the package.
Assuming the Vikings or any other club is unwilling to shell out that type of rate, then the Wolf-led Pats may perhaps, as has been anticipated, consider the highest-rated QB remaining on their board as soon as the Bears and Commanders have manufactured their picks. There is nevertheless little clarity, nevertheless, as to who that player could be.