When Mike Vrabel was hired to become the next head coach of the New England Patriots at the beginning of the year, there were a lot of questions surrounding how he would build his staff around him and if any of those from the previous regime would remain with the organization.
The primary focus was, of course, Eliot Wolf, who had taken on the role as the acting general manager during Jerod Mayo's tenure. Knowing that Vrabel would bring in some of his guys from his time with the Titans and would like to resume the most control over the team seemed to jeopardize Wolf's future in Foxboro.
That didn't last long, however, as Vrabel made it clear he was interested in working with Wolf and others who made up the Patriots front office in 2024 while also adding some of his personnel hires, like Ryan Cowden and John Streicher. The hope was that they could collectively work together and be on the same page despite potentially having different views.
Because Wolf was under so much pressure to have a dramatically better offseason compared to last year, there was some talk about how this new front office would actually click. It has seemed so far, so good at this point, but Wolf revealed it wasn't all sunshine and roses during the draft.
Eliot Wolf shares there was a bit of tension during the Patriots draft about who to pick in Round 2
During his post day two press conference with reporters on Friday night, Wolf spoke about how they decided to select the players they did, especially since all three picks were on offense. They were in a good position to take a standout player with pick No. 38, which they did by shockingly taking running back TreVeyon Henderson, but it wasn't as easy a decision for them to come to behind the scenes.
Wolf shared that there was some "debate" about the best choice, with most believing that wide receivers were considered at the spot given who was available at the time. But the players they were most interested in wound up being picked, leading them straight to Henderson anyway.
Eliot Wolf says the #Patriots staff had a “little bit of a debate” about who to pick at No. 38:
— Carlos A. Lopez (@LosTalksPats) April 26, 2025
“… one of the players we were talking about got drafted, so it didn’t end up mattering. But I think it was a really good step in the right direction just for us working together.” pic.twitter.com/BEdZEyDgzu
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Based on his positive spin of the conversation, or at least a more optimistic take on how the debate occurred, it seems like the concerns surrounding a possible power struggle were not entirely unfounded. The good thing is that, at least so far, it doesn't appear to be a legitimate issue, especially since Wolf spoke about it nonchalantly.
Hopefully, that remains the case moving forward, with even tougher decisions to make that go beyond who else they should draft. Maintaining a good relationship between the coaching staff and front office is crucial to building a solid franchise and that hasn't been the situation in New England over the past five years, at least.
Because the draft has gone as well as it has, there appears to be no reason for any worry about more tension taking place through the rest of the draft or that it will somehow become an issue once the weekend is over. Putting together a solid class would certainly ensure that, too, even more so considering how poorly last year was received.