Patriots first hire of the Mike Vrabel era comes in the front office
The New England Patriots have reportedly hired Ryan Cowden to join their front office. Cowden worked with new head coach Mike Vrabel in Tennessee.
Shortly after his introductory press conference on Monday, it seems that new New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel got right to work with the hiring process. On Monday afternoon the team made its first reported staffing addition since Vrabel becoming the head coach was made official.
That hire is Ryan Cowden, who will join the front office. Cowden began his NFL career with the Carolina Panthers as a scout in 2000, and moved up the ranks there before getting hired by the Tennessee Titans as the director of player personnel in 2016. Cowden was then promoted to vice president of player personnel upon Vrabel’s arrival in 2018.
In 2022 Cowden became interim general manager after Jon Robinson was fired. He interviewed for the official job that offseason, but Tennessee ended up hiring Ran Carthorn instead. After that Cowden was hired as and executive advisor to the general manager with the New York Giants, where he spent the last two years.
Cowden’s role in New England was not immediately defined by reports, although both Mike Garafolo of NFL Network and Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated both noted that Cowden will work under returning executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf.
Title’s aside, Wolf’s role also remains unclear. Last year Wolf had final say of the roster, making him the team’s de facto general manager (the Patriots have not had a titled general manager since 1989). However, at his press conference last week team owner Robert Kraft didn’t directly say whether or not Wolf would continue to hold that power once a new coach was hired.
On Monday, Vrabel himself talked about Wolf with NBC Sports Boston’s Tom Curran. Vrabel shared his is “very” comfortable in Wolf and the front office’s ability to identify good players.
“Having talked to Eliot…there were some things that maybe didn’t allow him to completely invest in personnel,” Vrabel said. “Whatever they did last year, that was last year. We’re gonna give them an opportunity to prove their value this year to the football team.”
Vrabel did make it sound like Wolf and his staff would lead the groundwork on the scouting process, explaining “I’m not going to be able to watch every player. I’m not going to be able to watch as many players as they will. I’m excited about them being able to consolidate that, to get me the players, to get me in front of the players that we need to identify and evaluate.”
The question is will Wolf then be in charge of picking the players after evaluating them (like last year)? Or will Vrabel or somebody else then take the work and make the call (if it were Vrabel, that would be similar to the setup under Belichick)?
That’s the big question around the Patriots right now, which could take some time to answer. Last year, Eliot Wolf’s final say status wasn’t officially reported on until early February. Either way though, Vrabel now has somebody he has experience with working in the player personnel department.
