Front office wants post-Belichick era Patriots to be modeled after this team
While the New England Patriots haven’t, and likely won’t, name Bill Belichick’s successor as general manager, it’s clear that director of scouting Eliot Wolf will be the one calling the shots.
As the team puts distance between itself and the third-winningest head coach of all-time, Wolf is ushering in a new era in New England — one that he’s modeling after the Green Bay Packers, an organization he spent 14 years with before joining the Patriots.
“We changed the [player] grading system [for the draft],” Wolf said, via NFL.com. “It's a little bit more similar to what we did in Green Bay. The previous Patriots system was more ‘This is what the role is’ and this is kind of value-based. So, it makes it a lot easier for scouts to rate guys and put them in a stack of ‘This guys is the best,’ ‘This guy is the worst’ and everything in between falls into place, rather than more nuanced approaches. I just think it accounts value better and it makes it easier for the scouts.”
Nearly three weeks ago, Patriots owner Robert Kraft decided Wolf would be in charge of the team’s personnel department with control over New England’s 53-man roster.
His effort in revamping the team’s player evaluation process allows for more collaboration and a collective perspective from the scouting department as opposed to the previous regime where Belichick had the final say.
The 72-year-old had been the Patriots GM since he was hired in 2000. He drafted 19 Pro Bowlers during his tenure, but quarterback Mac Jones (2021), kicker Jake Bailey (2019) and guard Joe Thuney (2016) are the only such players New England has drafted in the last 10 years.
With player evaluation and development seriously lacking, Wolf decided to overhaul the entire process in hopes of shocking the system.
More must-reads: