Eliot Wolf: Patriots Need to “weaponize the offense”

In what is sure to be music to Patriots fans ears, defacto GM Eliot Wolf spoke to reporters at the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis about the Patriots need to get some more weapons on offense,

“We need to weaponize the offense,” Wolf said Tuesday at the NFL Combine. “We need to be faster and more explosive on defense and, you know, height, weight speed, playmaking ability, there’ll definitely be an emphasis on those things.”

New England – which had one of the worst offenses in the league last season – is uniquely positioned to make major upgrades to their personnel by virtue of having the number 3 overall pick in the draft. The assumption is that the Patriots will make a move to upgrade the quarterback position after Mac Jones struggled last season and was ultimately benched in favor of backup Bailey Zappe.

“I’d say there’s a lot of options on the table,” Wolf said. “I’m glad you asked about Mac [Jones] and Bailey [Zappe.] We’re not going to be a program that’s talking about these guys in terms of through the media. We’re going to do what’s best for the team behind the scenes and the strategy of that is going to be myself, Jerod Mayo, Matt Groh. And we’re going to do the right thing for the team.”

Quarterbacks won’t work out till later in the week and none of the top 3 prospects – Caleb Williams, Drake Maye & Jayden Daniels – are expected to throw. Patriots brass plans to meet with all 3 top prospects this week. And though it’s still early in the process, Wolf is impressed by what he’s seen from the incoming QB class.

“I think it’s a really good year for quarterbacks,” Wolf said. “One thing about the quarterbacks in this draft specifically that I’m excited about is they all look like they’re really tough guys. Which is obviously great at any position, but at the quarterback position especially.”

Wolf also discussed what traits he’s looking for in a quarterback and it’s hard not to view his response as at least a thinly veiled shot at Mac Jones.

“First of all, being someone that can elevate his teammates,” Wolf explained. “Someone that your teammates wanna play for. I think that’s an extremely underrated thing that people don’t really talk about that much. Leadership’s important, and obviously physical talent. We wouldn’t be talking about these guys if they weren’t physically talented.

“Body language on the field is very important at that position. You don’t want a guy that’s throwing his hands up after a bad play or you can see him physically pointing at somebody. Body language is important. Everybody’s looking to the quarterback.”

Follow CLNS Media’s Taylor Kyles as he reports from the NFL Combine in Indianapolis this week.

 

Below is a full transcript of Wolf’s interview with reporters from Tuesday.

ELIOT WOLF PRESS CONFERENCE FULL TRANSCRIPT

Can you just take us through the process of how you going up here and being in the position now that you are.

Yeah, thanks for the question. I think I want to thank Robert and Jonathan Kraft for this tremendous opportunity that’s been bestowed upon me. You know, continue to work together with Jerod Mayo, it’s been really exciting so far and Matt Groh, Richard Miller, all the people that kind of make the Patriots go behind the scenes over the years, and it’s gonna be a lot of work. And we’re really excited to kind of get going here. Try to help improve the team and get us back to respectability.

What is your title?

My title is director of scouting.

What did your time Green Bay mean to you and help you get here? 

Yeah, my time in Green Bay meant everything. That’s where I learned my foundation of scouting, leadership, how to treat people, how to deal with people. Really just everything in terms of the business of football. It’s prepared me for this moment to help the New England Patriots get back to where we need to go.

Found guys like Greg Jennings, DeVante Adams, what are you thoughts on Marvin Harrison?

Yeah, well those players that you mentioned that we had with Green Bay, it wasn’t me, it was a collaborative effort. And we were really excited to get those guys and they’ve obviously  … Greg was a great player and DeVante continues to, you know, break records and eventually he’ll be getting the gold jacket. Thanks for the question about Marvin. He’s a good player. Obviously, there’s a lot of strengths to his game and he can translate it to any offense in the NFL.

Trying to compete with the Bills, what has stood out about how Brandon Beane has built the team?

Yeah, Brandon Beane’s done a great job with those guys. They obviously have Josh Allen, they have tremendous weapons on offense, they have a really good defensive scheme. And, you know, we’ll be able to compete with them as we move forward here. They’ve done a great job drafting and that’s something that we’re going to continue to try to do.

You have Mac Jones and Bailey Zappe are under contract and the number three pick on like, where are you guys in deciding what you’re going to do at quarterback?

Yeah, I mean, I’d say there’s a lot of options on the table. I’m glad you asked about Mac and Bailey. We’re not going to be a program that’s talking about these guys in terms of, you know, through the media, we’re gonna we’re gonna do what’s best for the team behind the scenes. And the strategy of that is going to be myself, Jerod Mayo, Matt Groh and we’re going to try to try to do the right thing for the team.

Mike Onwenu fired his agent. How does that impact you guys moving forward?

It doesn’t impact us. Mike’s a core player for us that, it’s no secret we want to try to keep Mike and it’ll just be a little bit of a wrinkle dealing with him. Mike’s really smart and he’s introspective and he’s thoughtful. And he knows what he wants, which is always good when you’re dealing with a player. And he’s certainly someone that we view as a cornerstone for us/

Quarterbacks in this year’s class, what you’ve seen in and are any of them worthy of No. 3?

I think it’s a really good year for quarterbacks. It’s a really good year at a lot of positions. Like any position we’re going to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses, determine who fits for us. We’re pretty early in the process here like I haven’t met any these guys, Jerod hasn’t met these guys. So you know, as we continue through the process here, we’ll determine what’s best for the team. And you know, one thing about the quarterbacks in this draft specifically that I’m excited about is they all look like they’re really tough guys, which you know, is obviously great at any position but the quarterback position, especially.

How do you try to gauge mental toughness, you can probably see it on the film in some ways, but how you try to gauge that and how important is this week to try to figure that out?

I don’t know how important this week is for that specifically, but I think it’s about talking to the right people and asking the right questions and when we meet with them asking the right questions, and that may be here in a formal interview that may be you know, at a later date at the Pro Day or wherever that may be, but we have to determine, you know, who can handle being the quarterback of the New England Patriots?

How do you sort through which assistants are good scouts? 

Yeah, that’s a great question. I think the key is just having open and honest meetings and dialogue. We had a series of meetings last week that were tremendous for us as we all got on the same page in terms of, you know, what our team needs are, and I was actually really encouraged by everybody willing to just say their opinion, even if it was different from the previous person. So you know, having those open, honest meetings and working together to determine the best outcome is is definitely what’s important.

In the past can you tell which are good and not, and adjusted accordingly?

Yeah, of course. You know, I think part of being in a leadership position is understanding the strengths and weaknesses of everybody in the building and that includes myself. Like I have strengths and weaknesses and it’s important to be able to supplement you know your team with with people who can you know, feed off of each other.

What traits do you value most in Quarterbacks?

Good question. You know, first of all, being someone that can elevate his teammates, someone that your teammates want to play for. I think that’s an extremely underrated thing that people don’t really talked about that much. Leadership is important and obviously, you know, physical talent, we wouldn’t be talking about these guys if they weren’t physically talented.

Emphasis placed on body language. And have you ever thought about using like outside agencies to, you know, evaluate the QBs

Body language on the field is very important at that position you know, you don’t want a guy that’s throwing his hands up after a bad play, or you can you can see him physically, you know, pointing at somebody or you know, body language is important. Everybody’s looking at the quarterback. And as far as outside agencies, I’m not exactly sure what you mean by that.

They have personality a test and see like how this personality matches those types of….

Yeah, I mean, we have we have a lot of tests that we use and resources like that. I don’t know there’s one more specific to body language that we utilize.

Do you anticipate using the franchise tag either on Onwenu or Dugger?

I would say that all the options are on the table. We definitely want to keep Mike and Kyle. You know, we’re hopeful to continue to work with Kyle’s agent and Mike to make that happen.

Roster building philosophy system that you want to implement will differ from the system been a part of the last four years. were a part of last year? 

Yeah, I think there’s just going to be a little bit more reliance on playing young players. I think it’s really important in today’s football to be able to play young players and develop from within.

Are you open to possibly trading the number three pit and have you fielded any calls in that light?

Yeah, I would say all options are on the table and we haven’t heard anything specifically.

Who makes the call on the No. 3 pick?

It’s gonna be a collaborative effort with Coach Mayo, myself, Matt Groh, the whole staff. At the end of the day, somebody has to make that pick and that’ll be myself.

Super Bowl had a QB drafted early, one drafted late. How has that changed over last 10 years?

I think when you look throughout the league, most of the quarterbacks are first-rounders. I think there’s exceptions to be had, like you know, Dak Prescott, Brock Purdy. Tom Brady. But I think just the league-wide understanding of how important that position is, and how important it is to have somebody there that can help you, you know, win games and get over the hump has changed league wide.

Why do you think the Packers keep getting the quarterback right?

Luck. No, just kidding. I think I think the scouting process that you know, that I grew up with that Brian Gutekunst continues to employ has been really good and you know, they’ve been able fortunate enough to, you know, sit Rodgers and sit Love for a year and that that’s been able to help them. I wouldn’t say that that applies to every quarterback but it certainly helps them.

Your father was an obvious mentor for you. What are some of the lessons that he taught you that you still are still guiding you today? 

Yeah, I think in terms of scouting itself, it just kind of trust what you see and believe in it. But also also really lessons about people. I still believe and this is great to be able to work with Jerod who also believes this this is a people business and it’s about developing people. And the culture is created from the people in your building, whether that scouts coaches players support staff and I think that’s tremendously important as you try to build the culture that you want.

Cash to burn. Do you anticipate being aggressive in free agency?

We’re going to aggressively try to help the team. Take that however you want it but we will we will try to do what’s right whether that means spending or saving … TBD.

Given your football life and who your dad was, what was your first trip to the combine and what do you remember? 

Oh, that’s a good question. So my first trip to the Combine was 1993. I was 10 years old. This is my 30th Combine. I’ve been every year except for the 2021 when they didn’t have it. The Combine now is so much more organized than it used to be. I mean, the workout was supposed to start at 10 back in the 90s. And maybe it would start at 1 and everyone would be sitting in the dome the whole time. It was crazy that there were no formal interview times it was like a big scrum with people grabbing guys or scouts and coaches fighting each other because they want to interview somebody acts like it was kind of wild. But it’s a credit to Jeff Foster and the league NFS to putting this thing together.

What was 10-year-old you doing? 

I was really just kind of dipping my toes into scouting and watching the workouts and evaluating. My dad used to sit down at the start of the 40s and it was it was him, Bill Parcells and Al Davis and I was just sitting there like soaking it all up like it was it was just tremendously rewarding. And, you know, kind of as I look back on it, it was you know definitely a special time

Elliott what should Patriots fans expect from an Elliot Wolf lead personnel department, what do you believe in as far as building a team?

I think the main thing is just getting players that fit our culture. Getting players that want to do right, want to do the extra but in terms of just physical skills, we need to weaponize the offense. We need to be faster and more explosive on defense and, you know, height, weight speed, playmaking ability, there’ll definitely be an emphasis on those things.

Pitch to free agents

Yeah, I would say our pitch to free agency is you know, this is a new program and we’re we’re heading in the right direction. It’s a new era. We have leadership with Jerod Mayo that is going to be tremendous. He’s just an unbelievable leader and developer of people. And I think that you know, as we move forward with the new offensive and defense like, it’s going to be it’s going to be pretty special and exciting here.

Elliot, what are some ways that Robyn Glaser has been helping out you?

Yeah, Robyn has been a good resource for everyone. She continues in her role as chief legal counsel, and she’s been helpful with some of the day to day behind the scenes things that need to get taken care of.

Do you think you’d have to pay tax in some ways for free agents to encourage them to come to New England?

In some ways, but I think that’s kind of free agency as a whole. Like, you know, you can teams can put their best recruiting pitch on and, you know, at the end of the day, like a lot of times they will just go to whoever’s offering the most money.

So what are you hoping to accomplish this week?

Well, that’s a good question too. The amount of information that we get here is just so tremendous that not only the timing of testing, you know, the measurements, the body types, the jumps and all those things, but we get all the medical information we get to meet with 45 guys formally and countless others informally. Talking to agents, getting information and talking to front office people and other teams and scouts and just the amount of information that we can accumulate in a week is awesome and it’s really a credit to the city of Indianapolis the way this thing is set up to because everything is like right here. And so you know, it was 70 degrees out yesterday, but there’s no need to go outside here because everything’s just kind of connected. It’s still a really great resource for us.

How involved do you anticipate ownership of some of these big decisions?

Yeah, I mean, they prefer to stay out of football, but they’re they’ve been very supportive of Jerod and myself and Matt, and you know, anything we need, we’ve gotten in a lot of ways. I think they have opinions which they’ll share but ultimately it’s it’s down to Jerod and I.

Have you and Alonzo changed the grading system that you guys are using and why are you doing that? What do you think that advantage is?

Yeah, so we changed the grading system. It’s a little bit more similar to what we did in Green Bay. The previous Patriot system was more, this is what the role is, and this is more kind of value-based. So I think it makes it a lot easier for scouts to rate guys and put them in a stack of like this guy’s the best, this guy’s the worst and everything in between falls into place rather than sort of more nuanced approaches. I just think it makes it … it accounts value better and it also makes it easier for the scouts in the fall as well as in the spring to determine where guys would get drafted.

Alonzo have a title?

Senior personnel executive.

To clarify, the new system won’t be as specific, like all receivers will be grouped together. You know what I mean?

Yeah, in a sense, I mean, we’ll still have slot receivers, perimeter receivers, things like that. To me it’s a little bit less about the grading scale and more about the process that we’re going to that we put in place. This process is a lot more collaborative. We hear from the scouts more, we’re going to be able to determine you know, together like what’s the best thing for the team at the end of the day

How hard is changing grading system of an organization?

You know, it’s actually been really encouraging the scouts have been really open to it, and they’re trying and you know, some guys have been here for 20 years with the old system. So, again, for me, it’s a lot less about the grading scale and more about the process of determining you know, who the best player for the Patriots.

Ted Thompson and Green Bay front office?

Yeah, the front office I worked with in Green Bay was phenomenal. I mean, just when I look back at those times, the amount of guys that have gone on to great success in this league, and Ted was the forefront of that. Ted was so humble and so introspective, and just taking a lot of a lot of things from him, will help me as I move forward in my career.

About the Green Bay Packer Way?

Yeah, the Packer way to me is just sort of a draft and develop, extend your core performers from within. And again, it’s about honesty, respect and treating people the right way.

Do you feel like the transfer portal are more reps and more skin exposure? Is that a net benefit or like how are you kind of interpreting all the quarterbacks that are coming out?

In terms of quarterbacks specifically? I don’t know that I would say it’s a benefit or a hindrance. Like I think every person, every situation is different. I think there’s something to be said for somebody that’s grown and developed in the same scheme for four years or five years. And I also think, you know, there’s something to be said for someone who has had those different exposures and has had to deal with that adversity of changing schemes and changing staff. So I think I think it’s an individual-based answer.