We now know who is running the Patriots’ front office
The biggest question about the New England Patriots’ reorganization post-Bill Belichick has been answered. We now know who is running the Patriots front office personnel-wise as the 2024 offseason gets started.
On Wednesday, NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported that Eliot Wolf “will be in charge of the personnel department, with control of the 53-man roster, working closely with [head coach] Jerod Mayo.” This essentially makes Wolf Belichick’s replacement as de facto GM.
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Whether or not Wolf actually gets the general manager title – which the Patriots last issued under Billy Sullivan’s ownership in 1990 – remains to be seen, with multiple reports following Rapoport stating his title is still to be decided. At this point though, the matter of title is somewhat academic. The real question was about who would have ‘final say‘ over personnel matters, which now seems to be Wolf.
Rapoport laid out some of the responsibilities for other staffers in the Patriots organization as well. He noted that Matt Groh will “mostly handle college scouting,” which was expected after he led the Patriots’ contingent at the Senior Bowl last week.
This will likely mean Wolf and Groh’s titles will at least need a swap when the Patriots finalize their front office structure. Last year Groh was the director of player personnel, which is more of a big picture, overseeing role, while Wolf was the director of scouting. Teams often change titles over the course of an offseason, but those changes may not be made immediately public.
Rapoport also mentioned Patrick Stewart, a former VP of player personnel for the Panthers who was hired by the Patriots last year as a senior personnel advisor. Rapoport notes that Stewart will be “heavily involved in all aspects,” which suggests a role similar to the one he had in Carolina.
“Wolf will lead and collaborate with Stewart, Groh and [newly-hired executive Alonzo] Highsmith to work the offseason, including the all-important QB decision,” Rapoport added in a follow-up post. That seems to outline the Patriots front office organizational structure, which quickly took shape on Wednesday.
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Examining initial comments from the Patriots' front office on the 2024 NFL Draft
L-R: LSU QB Jayden Daniels, Ohio State WR Marvin Harrison Jr. Who will the Patriots front office target?(USA Today)
With the departure of Bill Belichick, the leadup to the NFL Draft for the New England Patriots this year represents a whole new era. In the past, there were two decades of trends from Belichick’s front office to serve as a guide when analyzing the draft from a Patriots lens. Now, that process starts over.
Forget the trends themselves for a second – we still don’t really know who it will be creating the blueprint for the new era. From ownership on down the team has stressed a collaborative approach. There’s nothing wrong with that, but somebody will ultimately have to have ‘final say‘ when it’s time to make a decision.
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We finally got a brief glimpse into the new process on Friday, when Evan Lazar of Patriots.com posted interviews with both director of player personnel Matt Groh and college scouting director Camren Williams. Based on Groh’s comments, it sounds like the overall process may not change much, outside of who has final say.
“This is what we’ve always done here is get together as a group and talk things out,” Groh said of the ‘collaborative approach’ the front office staff is using. “So, not a whole lot has changed on our end. I’m looking forward to having the staff be a part of the evaluation process as we go through free agency and the draft.”
“It’s more just identifying good players and finding players in the right buckets and values within their skill sets and how they fit for our team,” Williams added, sharing more about how that process works. “We’ll have a coach that comes to us and says, hey, I want this and this position. These are the skills that I’m looking for. Then we can identify a list of players that we think fit that.”
Just because the process isn’t changing much doesn’t mean the approach, and ultimately the results, won’t be better. A lot of that will come down to how they view this class specifically.
While they didn’t give away the board (nor should they have), both Groh and Williams touched on some key topics about the 2024 draft process, and draft philosophy as a whole. Here’s the three quotes that stood out the most from the interviews.
