{"id":602319,"date":"2026-04-14T00:31:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T00:31:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/602319\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T00:31:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T00:31:11","slug":"what-we-learned-about-the-patriots-nfl-draft-plans-from-eliot-wolf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/602319\/","title":{"rendered":"What we learned about the Patriots\u2019 NFL Draft plans from Eliot Wolf"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New England Patriots\u2019 football operations department has begun a slow move into its new headquarters at the New Balance Athletics Center adjacent to Gillette Stadium. Not all of the pictures have been hung on the wall yet, but the staff is already working out of the new setup, running through final meetings this week to break down NFL Draft<\/a> prospects. The building is also home to a massive draft room, complete with a high-tech video board where the Patriots will organize their big board.<\/p>\n

But that ranking of draft-eligible players isn\u2019t done yet, even though the big day is just over a week away.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say the hay is not quite in the barn yet,\u201d Eliot Wolf said.<\/p>\n

The Patriots\u2019 executive vice president of player personnel took questions from reporters Monday ahead of the draft in a news conference that had been on the schedule for a month. He touched on wide receiver A.J. Brown, the strengths of this draft class and why he\u2019s always looking for speedy players. Here\u2019s what we learned.<\/p>\n

Another A.J. Brown (non-)answer<\/p>\n

The Patriots can\u2019t escape questions about the oft-rumored trade<\/a> for the Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver, and they\u2019re not likely to stop until June, when the Eagles will be more incentivized to deal the 28-year-old.<\/p>\n

But New England\u2019s actions in the draft will likely speak louder than any answer Wolf gave Monday. If the Patriots select a wide receiver with one of their first two picks next week, the need for a player like Brown drops significantly. But if they\u2019ve ignored the position through the first two days, eyes will turn again to Brown and the Pats.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs far as players on other teams, again, going to keep the door open to anything that we think may improve our roster, whether that\u2019s with the player you mentioned or other players,\u201d Wolf said.<\/p>\n

The draft\u2019s strengths<\/p>\n

Wolf previously said that this isn\u2019t a traditionally great draft class, adding the caveat that the Patriots should still get good players out of it.<\/p>\n

On Monday, he further broke down where this class should excel.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a pretty strong draft on the offensive and defensive line,\u201d Wolf said. \u201cSecondary, maybe not as much. Receiver and tight end are pretty good in comparison to some recent years. So, we\u2019re excited about some of these opportunities, and there are some matches to some positions of need for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The good news for the Patriots? They need help at edge rusher, tight end and wide receiver, and it\u2019s a deep draft class at those spots. The bad news? They also need depth at running back and linebacker, and this draft class isn\u2019t as good at those positions.<\/p>\n

Vrabel\u2019s involvement<\/p>\n

A year ago, Mike Vrabel was very involved in the scouting process with the Patriots front office and helped as New England landed a successful draft class.<\/p>\n

This year, Wolf said Vrabel may be even more involved. That\u2019s because Vrabel doesn\u2019t need to spend as much time with his coaching staff in Year 2, since it\u2019s mostly the same group as a year ago, and he\u2019s comfortable with how they work.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s watched a ton of the players,\u201d Wolf said of Vrabel. \u201cI think he tries to watch every player that we give to each position coach. He watches the whole \u2014 they call it the coaches\u2019 list. So, he has an opinion on these guys, and it\u2019s helpful because sometimes there are players that the scouts like, me included, and he\u2019ll be like, \u2018Well, this is the reason that maybe this guy\u2019s not the best fit for us.\u2019 So, we can continue to compile all the information together.\u201d<\/p>\n

The need for speed<\/p>\n

The Patriots have size and strength at edge rusher after signing free agent Dre\u2019Mont Jones, who figures to start this fall. But as they head into the draft, likely set to use an early pick at the position, look for them to pick a faster, twitchier edge rusher as opposed to one who is more bulked up like Jones.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe could complement our room with some speed,\u201d Wolf said. \u201cI think that\u2019s evident. Dre\u2019Mont, Harold (Landry III), Elijah (Ponder) and some of the other guys we have, they all have their skill sets. We would like to get faster. Dre\u2019Mont\u2019s a guy that can play across the line, run games. I mean, he can sneakily beat you with speed, but that\u2019s probably not his bread and butter. So, that\u2019s an area that we\u2019re looking to try to improve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some edge rushers who could be available with the 31st selection who would fit what Wolf mentioned? Oklahoma\u2019s R Mason Thomas, UCF\u2019s Malachi Lawrence, and Texas A&M\u2019s Cashius Howell.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New England Patriots\u2019 football operations department has begun a slow move into its new headquarters at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":602320,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[49,48,1718,514,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-602319","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-new-england-patriots","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=602319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/602320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}