Mike Vrabel shares the type of environment he hopes to create for Patriots players
What will Eliot Wolf's role look like with Mike Vrabel calling the shots as New England Patriots head coach?
That's a key question which should get answered in the near future as the Patriots sort out their front office hierarchy. But at the moment, Wolf is still the leader of New England's front office leader as the executive vice president of player personnel -- and Vrabel made a concerted effort to point that out during his introductory press conference Monday.
When asked what kinds of players he wants to bring to the Patriots, Vrabel brought up Wolf's name unprompted while noting an "inside joke" the two already have.
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"Eliot's going to laugh. I'm going to say, good ones," Vrabel responded. "That's just an inside joke between him and I already just over the weekend and through the interview process."
When asked if he'll have final say on roster decisions -- as former Patriots head coach Bill Belichick had for decades in New England -- Vrabel suggested a collaborative approach between himself and Wolf.
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"I think the most important thing is that there's a shared organizational vision for what we want to do, and how we want to work, and how we want to acquire players," Vrabel said. "There's numerous ways to acquire players through free agency, trade, draft, the post-draft process, after training camp. So again, I'm just excited to get to sit down with Eliot and his staff."
While that's a clear vote of support for Wolf, Yahoo Sports' Charles Robinson reported Sunday that New York Giants executive Ryan Cowden -- who served as Vrabel's head of personnel with the Tennessee Titans -- is expected to join the front office. That led to speculation that Cowden and Vrabel could shift the power dynamic away from Wolf in the Patriots' front office, and questions about whether the trio can work together given Cowden and Vrabel's extensive history working in Tennessee.
Vrabel said "nothing has been finalized" when asked about the report of Cowden joining his staff but did leave the door open for changes down the line.
"Eliot and I will have conversations," Vrabel said. "As with any staff, there's going to be turnover, there's going to be new coaches and new faces -- some that I will have history with and some that I won't. And that's what the interview process is."
"I've met more with Eliot over the weekend and have had conversations with him, but I need to sit down with his staff and figure out where we're at, what we need to do. I'm confident that those types of decisions are all going to sort themselves out."
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The Patriots desperately need an influx of talent in both free agency and the NFL Draft if they want to improve after back-to-back 4-13 seasons. They have plenty of resources -- a league-leading $120 million in cap space and the No. 4 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft -- and it's essential that they deploy those resources correctly.
That means it's essential for Vrabel and the coaching staff to be in lock-step with the front office, and for Vrabel specifically to determine whether keeping Wolf in his current role makes the most sense, or whether more widespread changes need to be made.
"We don't want to always be on the same page," Vrabel added. "That's not the environment that we want to create. But we want to have a shared vision. And there's also different ways to get there. And I'm embracing that.
"Everybody's going to have a different personality. I don't want my staff to be like me. I don't want all our players to be similar. We're going to have diverse ideas, and that's critical. To be able to have those types of conversations is something that I'm looking forward to."
