The New England Patriots, after the 2024 season, are a shell of their formerly great selves. After summarily kicking the best-ever Tom Brady out the door, the team under Bill Belichick, his personnel team, and Jerod Mayo, with that same group, flopped. A record of 7-27 the past two years won't cut in New England.
But after flubbing the whole Belichick exit and Mayo hiring gambits, owner Robert Kraft finally got one right. He did what he should have after the 2023 debacle and hired a top, experienced NFL Head Coach to run his football operation. It's Mike Vrabel.
Questions remained after his hiring about who'd be running personnel. The same group that advised Belichick in his final season and completely botched the 2024 offseason (absent drafting Drake Maye, likely a Kraft dictate) is still around. Yet, a recent nbcboston.com article seems to clarify that Vrabel's the top man. Let's explore why this is great news.
The Patriots 2024 personnel group can't possibly run the 2025 offseason
Patriots owner Robert Kraft knows well that the personnel operation he had in place (and still does to a great extent) was not NFL-capable in 2024. That group, headed by Eliot Wolf, Executive vice president of Player Personnel, floated around like a flounder out of water.
Absent drafting Maye, the off-season graded a D-/F, with only the decent signings of Antonio Gibson and Austin Hooper keeping it from a straight F. Free agency was a disaster, and the draft, except for Maye, delivered zilch. It was time for a change, and Kraft seemed to have it right.
Here's what nbcboston.com cites Vrabel as saying about this situation,
"I wouldn't be here, and I wouldn't have wanted to be the head coach here if I wasn't comfortable in my impact on the roster," Vrabel said. "We want to continue to have great conversations with the personnel staff, with me, with [vice president of football operations and strategy John "Stretch" Streicher], with coaching. We're all just trying to find the ways to bring the right players in here.
"Whether that's the first part of free agency, middle of free agency... the draft, there's gonna be players who get released we'll have to pivot to and have options. We need to strengthen the roster. We understand that and have some really good conversations about how we get there."
That should be music to the ears of everyone in Patriot Nation who pays attention to the critical offseason team-building. While the former group is still in Foxborough, there now seems no doubt they'll be in an advisory capacity, perhaps crunching analytical information, but not in charge of signing and drafting. Huzzah!
Why Vrabel will get the Patriots back on the path to prominence
One doesn't have to look any further than the left tackle (LT) situation on the 2024 Patriots to see the whole offseason plan was a fiasco. The team had no NFL-capable LTs. Wolf signed a right tackle, and Chuks Okorafor naively thought he could play left. He also suggested that rookie third-down pick, another right tackle, Caedan Wallace, might.
Chuks was gone after two games, and Wallace didn't do much of anything when he did play. Wolf's lack of experience (or wishful thinking?) tanked the 2024 season right then and there before a ball was even kicked in the summer camp in anger.
Thankfully, there's no doubt Vrabel will mold this team in his image and populate it with hard-nosed, tough, talented football players, as he was. Make no mistake about it: Vrabel's statement is the most important one we've heard since Kraft belatedly but finally announced his hiring.
Wolf and company can man the backroom desks and crunch some numbers or whatever else they do in support, but Vrabel will make the decisions. You can bet, he'll never go into a season without a legitimate left tackle or two. Nor will he trade his top two (and only two) edge players before/during the season (among other gaffes), leaving him with none.
Vrabel brought in his own man, Ryan Cowden, as VP of Player Personnel. Expect him to be the top voice in Vrabel's ear before he finalizes any personnel decisions. Everything begins in early March with free agency. We'll see if this prognostication is right or flops. The thought here is it will be terrific.