Phil Perry and Tom E. Curran each share what they’re hearing about the future of Eliot Wolf and the Patriots’ current personnel department as the team begins the search for their next head coach.
FOXBORO -- One portion of Robert Kraft's football operation has already undergone drastic change. What about the other?
Less than 24 hours after firing head coach Jerod Mayo, Kraft was faced with questions about his personnel department and its future. Some of those questions and answers begot further questions that weren't able to be asked during Kraft's back-and-forth with reporters at Gillette Stadium on Monday, but here's my understanding of the situation.
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Eliot Wolf and Alonzo Highsmith will, as Kraft explained, help lead the search for a new head coach. And Kraft would like for Wolf and others to remain on the personnel staff in some capacity.
Kraft was clear on that when asked if his choice for head coach might impact those currently in the front office.
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"We are looking for people working together," Kraft said, "and they will be staying on."
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Staying on in what capacity, though? Those details were not provided in Monday's press conference. I'm told that there is no guarantee Wolf will be leading the personnel department in 2025.
If a new head coach is hired and has strong feelings about bringing aboard a new front office chief, as would be the expectation for someone like Mike Vrabel, the belief internally is that the Krafts would be open to that kind of suggestion.
As Kraft noted, the new head coach is going to have a significant level of say as to who populates the facility at One Patriot Place in the near future.
"We'll wait until we bring that coach in," Kraft said when asked about potential changes beyond the head coach. "Obviously, he's going to have big input on who the players are and who the coaches are. It'll be his decision."
Would Wolf be open to that type of arrangement, though? As executive vice president of player personnel, not general manager, he could be asked to take on a role beneath an incoming personnel boss -- whether that's the head coach himself or someone with a front-office background brought aboard by the head coach.
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Kraft indicated that he would like to see if the new grading system Wolf brought aboard last year might be able to bear any fruit moving forward.
"I think that the department evolved a lot, and a lot of things were changed," Kraft said. "We changed our grading system this year and have done things.
"Our drafts have not been good for a while. If you want to compete long-term and be good in this league, you've got to have good drafts because those rookie contracts allow you to go out and get the people you need to surround people. It looks like we lucked out; we maybe have two quarterbacks. But I think we'll hopefully see a big improvement this year."
Does Kraft believe that Wolf deserves more time based on the rapidly changing nature of the football operation after Bill Belichick? Does he believe that Wolf deserves more time because, in the spirit of collaboration, the coaching staff had real say in personnel decisions last offseason? Or is it Kraft's respect for Wolf's resume and their shared time together that has bought him more time in the owner's eyes?
Whether Wolf will continue to have final say on the roster or not is still to be determined. But Kraft's commentary on Monday is indicative of his desire to keep Wolf, and Wolf's scouting methods, around a little longer.
