New England Patriots - NESN.com
The Patriots fell victim to a troubling trend last season, and there doesn’t appear to be an end in sight.
Jerod Mayo was the face of it, but his one-year tenure as head coach was filled with constant mixed messaging across the organization. Robert Kraft did much of the same, as did several staff members like Alex Van Pelt and DeMarcus Covington, and executive Eliot Wolf. One Patriot Place was somewhat of a clown show, and though things are inching in the right direction, the latter still doing much of the same.
Wolf spoke with reporters at the scouting combine in Indianapolis on Wednesday, and immediately picked up on the old habit of sending mixed signals when he answered a question about who would have the final say over the roster.
“Ultimately, it’s my final say,” Wolf said, per team-provided video. “… Mike wouldn’t have taken this job if we weren’t comfortable with each other. There’s not gonna be Mike’s guys or Eliot’s guys. They’re gonna be Patriots guys.”
Really? Mike Vrabel, the new head coach who everyone assumed had roster control, kind of said the opposite on Tuesday.
“I wouldn’t be here, and I wouldn’t have wanted to be the head coach here if I wasn’t comfortable in my impact on the roster,” Vrabel said. “We want to continue to have great conversations with the personnel staff, with me, with [vice president of football operations and strategy John “Stretch” Streicher], with coaching. We’re all just trying to find the ways to bring the right players in here. Whether that’s the first part of free agency, middle of free agency… the draft, there’s gonna be players who get released we’ll have to pivot to and have options. We need to strengthen the roster. We understand that and have some really good conversations about how we get there.”
Wolf didn’t stop there, though.
New England’s roster was another popular topic of conversation, which led to the executive vice president of player personnel admitting that he could have been “more thorough” when building things out last year.
Huh?!
Wolf obviously was trying to shoulder the blame to alleviate pressure off others, but admitting you didn’t put in enough work isn’t the way to do it. Ja’Lynn Polk’s name was brought up, as well, with the executive pointing to an early workload issue leading to his season-long struggles — which is interesting considering he had at least one catch in six straight games to start the season, before finishing with just two the rest of the way.
“Last season, ultimately the roster was on me. We were 4-13. Just didn’t get enough done,” Wolf admitted. “Certainly the free agency class didn’t live up to our expectations, the draft class — it’s too soon to tell — but we were expecting a bigger impact from some of those guys, and we’re still hopeful that they’ll get to that point.”
The Patriots obviously can appreciate someone shouldering the blame, but it just never quite seems...
