Find someone who looks at you the way Eliot Wolf looks at the Patriots’ wide receivers.
Or something like that.
Because boy oh boy does the Patriots' Director of Scouting and de facto GM seem to see something in his New England wide receiver depth chart – and maybe his offense as a whole – that just doesn’t really resonate the same way with outsiders.
To us beyond the walls of Gillette Stadium, it looks like the Patriots are pretty lacking at wide receiver. And left tackle. And quarterback.
But during his upbeat and refreshingly open pre-draft press conference on Thursday in Foxborough, Wolf expressed faith, hope and optimism for his offense that just doesn’t exist elsewhere. Not from most fans.
Nor critics. Nor analysts. Nor foes alike.
Wolf, though, is at least hard selling the idea that he really, really likes some of the talent on his offensive roster that he feels misguided outsiders simply aren’t seeing.
“We have NFL receivers, we have NFL tight ends, we have NFL running backs, we have NFL offensive lineman,” Wolf said. “We feel good about where we are and we feel through free agency, on the offensive side in particular, that we've been able to supplement our roster properly, so we're not having to draft for need as much offensively.”
Certainly that’s not the narrative surrounding New England with less than a week to go to the 2024 NFL Draft, the most critical draft for the franchise in three decades. The belief is that the Patriots absolutely must “draft for need.” Many needs. Most believe the Wolf-led collaboration practically needs to snag a would-be franchise QB, possible starting left tackle and potential No. 1 wide receiver. After all, the wide receiver group Wolf likes so much tallied a total of eight touchdowns among the nine guys a year ago, four of those coming from Kendrick Bourne who is coming off a torn ACL.
As such, the structure and roster may not be in place to properly support the quarterback likely to be called at No. 3 overall, whether that be Jayden Daniels or Drake Maye. That’s simply not the way the optimistic Wolf sees things.
“I read a lot of that storyline. I'm not really sure what that means,” Wolf said. “We have a solid offensive line. We re-signed Mike Onwenu, we have David Andrews coming back. We have three rookies that we drafted last year that are developing. We signed [Chukwuma] Okorafor from the Steelers. Hunter Henry. I mean, a good running game, a solid foundation and a solid system in place with coach [Alex] Van Pelt on the offense. So, I definitely feel like we can support that.”
Ummmm, sure. OK. Guess that’s one glass-half-full way of looking at things on the New England offense at this April point in the team-building process. One that a key member of the new regime can and should be professing.
With all due respect, the alternate view is that the team doesn’t have a starting-caliber QB, starting-caliber left tackle or true No. 1 or maybe even No. 2 option at receiver. That leaves a lot of work to be done between now and September, with the draft at the center of that remaining roster rebuilding.
Does Wolf really believe that he has requisite talent on his offense, most notably at wide receiver?
Or is this like that old GEICO commercial with Pinocchio as a bad motivational speaker who sees “nothing but untapped potential” only to realize that his ever-growing nose reveals his true feelings.
Wolf’s words told us one thing this week about his wide receivers and his offense as a whole.
Next week we’ll see if his draft weekend actions tell us a different story.
The guess here is that they will when New England takes a quarterback, a wide receiver and maybe a tackle on the first two days of the 2024 NFL Draft.