Breer shares insight on Eliot Wolf's contract, dynamic with Vrabel originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
With critical needs all over their roster, it’s imperative that the New England Patriots make the right choices in free agency and the 2025 NFL Draft.
So, it may have given Patriots fans pause to hear head coach Mike Vrabel suggest he’ll be calling the shots when it comes to player acquisition, only to hear executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf admit he has “final say” over the 53-man roster.
So who’s actually running the show in New England, and how will the process of adding talent work under the team’s current setup? The MMQB’s Albert Breer joined our Patriots Insider Phil Perry on a new Next Pats Podcast live from the NFL Scouting Combine to provide some clarity on the situation — starting with a detail about Wolf’s contract.
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“What I know is that the draft, free agency, the stuff that goes along with being the primary football executive — which is the jargon that the league uses to define these rules — that was written into Eliot Wolf’s contract when he was when he was signed on as the EVP of player personnel,” Breer said.
“And his contract has not been altered. So, all the control that he had in 2024, he retains now in 2025.”
Wolf assumed the “EVP of player personnel” role last winter after Bill Belichick’s departure and had final say over the roster last season. Technically, the same setup exists in 2025. But in reality, Vrabel will play a much more hands-on role than predecessor Jerod Mayo when it comes to player acquisition — similar, Breer believes, to how the Seattle Seahawks operated when Pete Carroll was head coach.
“There have been situations like this in the past where you see that the GM by title … has personnel control written into the contract, but in practice, the coach has a heavy hand,” Breer said.
“On paper, yes, Eliot has final say. I think the way it’s going to wind up being structured is what I would call the old Pete Carroll model in Seattle, which is, the scouts (and) the personnel chief, build the roster up, and the head coach, the coaching staff cut it back down.
“So, essentially you’re going to be looking for your scouts to build the roster up and put players in front of the coaches and essentially pick the players based on what the coaches want. And then when the coaches get them in-house, the coaches cut the roster back down.”
In that model, the job of Wolf, VP of player personnel Ryan Cowden and the rest of the front office is to essentially find players who fit the mold of what Vrabel and the coaching staff are looking for, rather than their own mold.
“I think really for Eliot, for Ryan Cowden and for that entire staff, a huge part of this is going to be, ‘How do we go and see players through the coach’s eyes?'” Breer said.
“It’s Mike Vrabel vision for the team that they’re building out. It’s not Eliot Wolf’s vision for the team. It’s Mike Vrabel’s vision for the team.”
Also in this episode:
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