Callahan: Eliot Wolf isn’t holding back on the Patriots’ rebuild

INDIANAPOLIS — From wherever his office inside the Patriots’ facility last season, Eliot Wolf must have gazed out his window and shook his head.

There was the talent-starved roster. The overworked, politicking coaching staff. The culture that grated members instead of building them up.

How do I know Wolf felt this way?

Well, setting aside the 4-13 record, he said as much Tuesday.

The Patriots’ old culture? Too punishing.

“Certainly,” he said at the NFL Scouting Combine, “there’s more of an open, less hard-ass type vibe in the building that we can move forward with.”

The offense? Not dangerous enough.

“We need to weaponize the offense,” Wolf said.

The defense? Too slow.

“We need to be faster and more explosive on defense,” he added.

Credit to him. The Patriots’ de facto GM is not running from the truth, nor the task at hand, nor the long, Bill Belichick-shaped shadow over his upcoming rebuild. That shadow, in the end, fostered an environment that accelerated the Patriots’ downfall after their competitive margins shrank to virtually nothing.

The coaching staff fractured, and the quarterback broke, while his own defense pointed fingers from across the locker room. Wolf saw it, and so did Mayo. That’s why they’re publicly shining a light on the darkness and looking ahead.

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Now before the Belichick defenders charge over the hill, swords out and shields ready to defend the greatest coach of all time, remember that Belichick earned the nickname “Doom” more than a decade before he took over in New England. Belichick’s greatness, his genius, was inseparable from the doom persona that birthed a hardline, thankless work environment in Foxboro. That environment worked because it was authentic to Belichick, and perpetuated by talented inferiors who believed in him, including the greatest quarterback to ever play.

Then, the quarterback left, more talent followed him out the door, the beatings continued, morale didn’t improve, and Belichick was gone, too.

The Krafts clearly believe Belichick was at the heart of their problems, and viewed Wolf as part of the solution.

Wolf is an outsider the team adopted in 2020, a 20-year veteran of NFL front offices who understands their football operations intimately but has maintained a professional identity and belief system separate from The Patriot Way. Or, as director of player personnel Matt Groh once described Patriot lifers, he hasn’t been “institutionalized.”

Wolf began to free his colleagues in recent weeks, encouraging them to speak more openly in a recent series of meetings that introduced a new scouting system and grading scale that he’s implemented from Green Bay.

“I was actually really encouraged by everybody willing to just say their opinion, even if it was different from the previous person,” Wolf said. “Having those open, honest meetings and working together to determine the best outcome is definitely what’s important.”

He later added: “This process is a lot more collaborative. We hear from the scouts more. We’re going to be able to determine together what’s the best thing for the team at the end of the day.”

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That last line should ring familiar. It was a Belichick go-to, the center square in his press conference bingo card. But as far as Belichick’s scouting processes? Those are getting ripped out by the roots.

More from Wolf: “The previous Patriots system was more, ‘This is what the role is,’ and this is more value-based. I think it makes it a lot easier for scouts to rate guys and put them in a stack of, ‘This guy’s the best, this guy’s the worst,’ and everything in between falls into place.

“Rather than more nuanced approaches. I just think it accounts for value better, and it also makes it easier for the scouts in the fall, as well as in the spring, where guys are going to be drafted.”

Naturally, such sweeping change is being met with pockets of resistance. Wolf’s stated goal of returning the Patriots to “respectability” also irked some. But not those inside the building.

One Patriots personnel evaluator later admitted to the Herald that the front office feels a loss of respect across the league. Player agents have insisted privately the Patriots must pay top dollar to sign their clients this offseason, a tax for being a losing team in a small market. Wolf did not commit to a free-agent spending spree, but shared part of his pitch to those players.

“This is a new program,” he said. “We’re heading in the right direction. It’s a new era.”

A new era founded on old ideas from Green Bay, where Wolf contributed to a Super Bowl-winning team in 2010. During that time, Wolf learned what a championship team feels like, sounds like, plays like. Wolf described The Packer Way as a belief system rooted in drafting and development, honesty and respect.

It’s a slow build, with a long-term payoff. Though Wolf didn’t sidestep expectations for 2024. He met them head-on, like every other aspect of his job to date.

What will a successful season look like for the Patriots?

“Really just showing good progress and turning the culture around,” he said. “And competing for the playoffs is something we’re not going to shy away from.”