6 rings: Jerod Mayo is putting the pieces in place & Your mailbag questions
While it’s been made pretty clear through their flurry of hires over the last two weeks, it was all but confirmed by NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport on Wednesday that Eliot Wolf, the Patriots’ director of scouting over the last several seasons, is working as New England’s de facto general manager.
Rapoport wrote in a post on Twitter that Wolf, “will be in charge of the personnel department, with control of the 53-man roster working closely with Jerod Mayo.” He added that former director of player personnel Matt Groh will mostly handle college scouting – Wolf’s previous role.
Allow me to opine?
This post-Belichick front office shake up, mainly the effective elevation of Eliot Wolf to general manager, is a good move by the football franchise in Foxborough.
“HOMER!”
“PATRIOTS BOBO!”
“IT’S NEPOTISM AGAIN!”
“STOP CARRYING THE KRAFTS’ WATER!”
Woah woah woah. Let me explain.
Despite what some may believe, Wolf is not just some nepo-baby slouch who was handed an NFL front office job just because his father is former Packers general manager and Hall of Famer Ron Wolf.
Did the connection help? Absolutely. But that’s just business, baby – as former Patriots safety Devin McCourty explained on WEEI’s The Greg Hill Show on Wednesday:
"That's how the NFL works,” he told the show when asked about Wolf and the new-look Patriots. “Not many people hire people that have zero connection to what they do. From ownership all the way down to the last guy on the roster there's usually something that someone has a connection to, they know this coach that knows that coach.”
In fact, while Wolf spent 14 seasons in Green Bay’s front office from 2004-2017, he never even overlapped with his old man – who retired in 2000.
The 41-year-old Wolf is a respected executive in the NFL and has been both considered for and has interviewed for several open general manager positions in the past. Here’s the proof:
–– In 2016, Wolf was reportedly the Detroit Lions’ first choice to become their next general manager before the Packers denied their request to interview him. The Detroit Free Press’ Brian Manzullo called Wolf at the time “one of the hottest names in NFL front-office circles.”
–– In 2017, Wolf reportedly interviewed for the 49ers open general manager position before they went with John Lynch.
–– When Packers general manager Ted Thompson stepped into an advisory role in 2017, Wolf was reportedly a candidate to replace him. When Green Bay ultimately went with Brian Gutenkunst.
–– Wolf was reportedly honored by his peers as one of the 10 best scouts/executives in the AFC in 2021.
–– In the winter of 2022, Wolf interviewed twice with the Chicago Bears for their vacant general manager position. He was passed up for Ryan Poles.
Now let’s get to what Wolf’s teams have accomplished with him as an executive.
The Packers were a perennial Super Bowl contender and continuously sat atop the NFC during his 14 seasons in Green Bay. From 2004-2017, with Wolf serving in various positions across the front office, the Packers went a combined 135-88-1, won seven NFC North titles, and hoisted a Lombardi Trophy in 2010 with a Super Bowl XLV victory. They also tallied a 15-1 record in 2011 and Aaron Rodgers won two MVP awards.
While Wolf primarily worked in pro personnel rather than scouting, it’s worth noting that Green Bay drafted the likes of Rodgers, Jordy Nelson, Clay Matthews, Brian Bulaga, and David Bahtiari during his time in the front office. All five signed multiple contracts with the team, which Wolf likely had a hand in.
When Green Bay passed on him and instead named Gutenkunst their GM in 2016, Wolf left to become the Browns assistant general manager under John Dorsey. He and Dorsey had their work cut out for them, to say the least. The new front office brass entered a Cleveland organization that had won just one of their last 32 games (1-16 in 2016, 0-16 in 2017), and to say they put them on a better track would be an understatement.
While the Browns went 13-18-1 in Wolf’s two seasons in their front office, the players they were able to both draft and trade for are part of the reason why the team has made the playoffs in two of their last four seasons.
Following their trade for wide receiver Jarvis Landry in the spring of 2018, Cleveland went onto select quarterback Baker Mayfield, cornerback Denzel Ward, offensive lineman Austin Corbett, and running back Nick Chubb in the NFL Draft, giving the franchise some building blocks and a nucleus moving forward.
When the Browns moved on from John Dorsey as general manager following their 6-10 finish to 2019-20 season, they actually wanted Wolf to stay on staff under new GM Andrew Berry, but he chose to leave. His father Ron later cited Cleveland’s reliance on data and analytics was “what got ‘em 1-31.”
For the scoreboard: Wolf has never been a part of a front office firing, leaving both Green Bay and Cleveland on his own accord.
He has since served as both a consultant and the director of scouting for Patriots since 2020 and in the midst of their full-stop change over post-Bill Belichick, he’s now essentially been given the keys to the operation. By all accounts, he’s had a heavy hand alongside Jerod Mayo in several of their coaching hires, Wolf has connections to offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt, senior offensive assistant Ben McAdoo, defensive line coach Jerry Montgomery, and executives Alonzo Highsmith and Bobby Brown.
Should you be shocked by this? No.
Is it a bad thing? Again, no.
And again, we’ll go to Devin McCourty to simplify it if you won’t take my word for it:
“I mean I think the biggest thing everyone was wondering when this whole thing came together [was] who [is] going to be the GM?” he explained on WEEI. “Now that it seems like it's Eliot Wolf people are like, 'Man this is crazy Eliot Wolf's the GM and is hiring his friends.' Like to me, you kinda figured that was gonna happen but I think in all of these coaching decisions no one knows what it actually means until these guys go out there and they coach games together, they go and they compete.”
Long story short? Wolf has had success in this league. This isn't just some rando who's a 'yes man' for Robert and Johnathan Kraft.
Will it be a surefire, slam dunk hiring with a definitive 100% hit rate? Of course not, not many are.
But what it also isn’t, is crazy for New England to trust him in this spot.
At the very least, Wolf has earned the right for us to give this thing a chance. So let’s!
Make sure to follow Mike on Twitter @mikekadlick, and follow @WEEI for the latest up-to-date Patriots and Boston sports news!
Related
