Mike Vrabel eager to collaborate with Eliot Wolf when it comes to building up the Patriots
FOXBORO -- New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel will have a lot of say about his roster. But it sounds like executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf will remain in charge of New England's front office.
Vrabel was introduced as New England's head coach on Monday, and referenced Wolf a number of times during his press conference. When asked if he would possess final say over the Patriots roster, Vrabel said it would be a collaborative effort with Wolf and his staff.
"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," said Vrabel. "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."
Vrabel spoke with Wolf a lot over the weekend as he finalized a deal to become the 16th head coach in Patriots franchise history. It sounds like they got along well, and Vrabel even shared an inside joke between the two when asked what kind of players he hopes to bring to New England.
"Eliot's going to laugh. I'm going to say, 'good ones,'" Vrabel replied. "That's just an inside joke between him and I already just over the weekend and through the interview process."
Wolf didn't have a ton of success bringing "good ones" to New England last offseason, as he had a number of misses at both the NFL Draft and in free agency. Vrabel sounded confident that will change this winter, but it will be up to him and his staff to make sure the players are completely bought in with the process.
"We're going to ask our players to just do a few things. One is to put the team first, to know what to do, and play fast and aggressive. That's the vision for the type of player," said Vrabel. "Winners come in all shapes and sizes. We're going to have leaders. Leaders are going to identify themselves. I know that our staff and our ability to create winners and competitors are probably easier than it is to create leaders, and the leaders are going to identify themselves. The leaders are going to be the ones that define the culture. The culture will be what drives and gives you the results that we're all after.
"So the type of player, when you get into scouting and evaluation, every team has a height, weight, speed. Then it's our job to take analytical data and watch the tape and just figure out where they fit best for us. Maybe they're the best ones and the right ones. That would be wonderful. But it's a long process, and those are the things we're going to ask the players to do -- put the team first, know what to do, and play fast and aggressive and play with some speed," Vrabel continued.
The Patriots need a lot more talent up and down the roster if they want to have success on the field, and Vrabel knows that. Now he'll get to work in collaboration with Wolf to make sure that happens.
Ryan Cowden on board in New England
While Wolf seemingly remains atop the front office, Vrabel is bringing in one of his guys in Ryan Cowden. The 46-year-old, who has spent the last two seasons with the New York Giants as an advisor to general manager Joe Schoen, is reportedly set to join the New England front office. According to Albert Breer of The MMQB, Cowden will likely be Wolf's No. 2 going forward.
While mixing the new with the old has the potential to get messy in the New England front office, Vrabel sounds confident that it will all work out. And in Cowden, he's bringing in someone who worked with him closely in Tennessee.
While Vrabel was the head coach of the Titans, Cowden was the director of player personnel (2016–2017) and vice president of player personnel (2018–2022) in Tennessee. He also served as the team's interim general manager in 2022, and Vrabel reportedly wanted Cowden to take over as general manager in 2023. But Titans owner Amy Adams Strunk went with Ran Carthon instead, which frayed the relationship with Vrabel, who was fired after the 2023 season.
While Vrabel wants a shared vision in New England, he's OK if not everyone shares the same opinion over every matter. He doesn't want to be surrounded by "yes" men, which he says is a big part of that collaborative process.
"We don't always want to be on the same page. That's not the environment we want to create," he said Monday. "But we want to have a shared vision, and there's also different ways to get there. I'm embracing that everyone'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, and to be able to have those types of conversations is something I'm looking forward to."
