PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Since Mike Vrabel was hired, we’ve spent a lot of time wondering where, exactly, the buck stops. Who’s got final say? Who decides the tiebreakers? Who’s in charge down there, really?

Vrabel wasn’t asked about that Monday at the NFL Owners Meetings. But one of his answers was very illuminating about how he views the pecking order.

Asked about the push-pull between scouts and coaches when it comes to player selection, it was pointed out that the losing side in those situations will always have the chance to say, "I told you so…" when things don’t work.

And "I told you so …" and/or "That wasn’t my fault …" have been rampant in Foxboro for going on seven years.

There’s been a whole lot of blame-laying for a long time. Blame it on Tom. Blame it on Bill. Blame it on Robert. Or Jonathan. Blame it on Matt Patricia or Mac Jones. Blame it on Mayo. Blame it on Eliot Wolf. We could go on.

The point is, nobody’s been willing to anybody to publicly say "Blame it on me…" and truly mean it without wheedling behind the scenes to make a case it really wasn’t their fault.

It’s not a unified front when people are shivving each other behind the curtain with regularity.

"We want to try to eliminate those things from our program, the 'I told you so's,'" Vrabel said when asked about the organizational dynamic when things go wrong. "You can put it on me. I'm a big boy, trust me. We're going to have a lot of things that go well, which will be good to the players and the assistant coaches, and they'll have some things that won't go so well, and you can put those on me. I can handle it.”

It's one thing to say that in March before the first OTA. It’s another to live it when the poop is hitting the fan in August, October or December. But it’s hard not to take Vrabel at his word.

So far, he’s brought authority and authenticity to one of the most daunting jobs in the league. And that makes it hard to call BS on anything he’s saying.

Inevitably, he’s going to spin things optimistically. He did plenty of that Monday. But he’s at least honest about where the team truly is.

Asked if he still has winning the division as a goal, he confirmed, “We wanna win the division.”

He chased that with an ice bucket of reality.

“We won March (with free agency),” he cracked. “We won March. Amazing. Which is something that's comical, right? We're never just trying to win March. We want to just try to be ready when the season goes and it's a long process.”

🔊 Patriots Talk Podcast: Mike Vrabel weighs in on the state of the Patriots | Listen & Subscribe | Watch on YouTube

The biggest part of the process -- aside from the actual games -- is drafting talented players. Free agency is supposed to be for patching cracks. Not building a foundation. The NFL Draft -- in less than a month -- is miles more important than free agency. As was last year’s draft, which the Patriots potentially punted away except for Drake Maye.

Agreeing that this team can’t afford more bad drafts, Vrabel said, “It's tough, buddy. It catches up with you. If you don't draft well, it catches up with you. (Then) you've got to chase in free agency, and you've got to be perfect.

“So the draft is critical, right? To be able to find players that fit a role, and you develop them, and you decide to retain them and build through the draft because you know the person and the player can really excel in your program and what you believe in. So, you've got to draft well. If not, it catches up with you.

“You have to have the volume of (contributing players selected in each draft),” he added. “Or if you're going to go up for players, you've got to be convicted on them because of the capital that it's going to cost you to go up and get them.

Which brings us back to who’s calling the shots on the players. Final say is in Eliot Wolf’s contract. But between the Patriots' personnel track record since Wolf joined the franchise and last season’s heinous showing in his first season as lead personnel man, it makes a whole lot of sense for him to ride shotgun for the foreseeable future, regardless of what his contract says.

If Vrabel’s willing to wear the blame – which Wolf had been irritatingly unwilling to do until he was practically shamed into it at the NFL Combine – then let Vrabel take the wheel.

He’s willing to take arrows to the chest? Then, to borrow a 44-year-old quote from Cedric Maxwell, jump on his back.