New England Patriots - NESN.com
From the outside, it looks like New England Patriots executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf is in an awkward situation.
He’s surrounded by a handful of Mike Vrabel confidants in New England’s front office and despite Wolf’s title, it’s unclear what type of power he has in football decisions.
But Wolf insisted Wednesday from the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis that there’s no issues working alongside members of the front office that Vrabel helped bring in. That includes Ryan Cowden, who technically works under Wolf as the vice president of player personnel but has deep ties with Vrabel after they spent time together with the Tennessee Titans.
“I’ve always appreciated Ryan because he has a distinct opinion,” Wolf told reporters, per team-provided video. “He’s not going to waffle on anything. This is what it is and that’s been really rewarding to work with him so far. It’s been good.”
Wolf, like Vrabel did a day earlier, preached a collaborative approach from Patriots executives — collaboration is a buzz word the Patriots have tried to sell the media and the fans since showing Bill Belichick the door.
Wolf doesn’t want New England’s front office to turn into the Hunger Games with people picking sides. Instead, Wolf said “there’s not going to be Mike’s guys or Eliot’s guys. They’re going to be Patriots guys.”
It certainly looks like on paper that there are two different factions in the front office. Vrabel with Cowden and vice president of football operations and strategy John Streicher among others on one side and Wolf with senior personnel executive Alonzo Highsmith on another.
But perhaps a longtime relationship between Wolf and Cowden can help bridge the gap. Wolf said the two have known each other for around 20 years and more importantly, share a similar mindset when it comes to grading players.
“So he came up in Carolina, I came up in Green Bay. And for whatever reason, a lot of the Packers scouts and Panthers scouts kind of shared some of the same views,” Wolf said. “And I don’t know if the grading scale was exactly the same, but it’s something that he’s worked in before.”
