The New England Patriots have been in no rush to hire a general manager, and they may not hire one at all this year.
Sources tell CBS Sports the Patriots have made no moves to interview any external candidate for their vacant primary football executive position in the wake of Bill Belichick’s departure. The team hasn’t had a general manager in title since Belichick took over, and that may continue in 2024 as the team’s personnel group is now captained by Eliot Wolf.
League rules would allow for the Patriots to keep that position vacant all season long, thus not having to interview anyone for the spot. Team owner Robert Kraft has strongly suggested they’re going to roll in the short-term with the personnel members they have.
“We have a lot of people internally who have had a chance to train and learn under the greatest coach of all time and a man whose football intellect is very special,” Kraft said last month. “So, in the short-term, we’re looking for collaboration. Our team has a tremendous opportunity to position itself right, given our salary cap space, and we’ve never drafted, in my 30 years of ownership, we’ve never been drafting as [high] as we’re drafting.
“So we’re counting on our internal people, whom we’re still learning and evaluating. So we’re going to let that evolve and develop, and before the key decisions have to be made, we will appoint someone.”
When Jerod Mayo ascended to the head-coaching position in New England, he got Belichick’s old title, but not all his power. Belichick was the team’s “primary football executive,” a designation with the NFL league office that informs everyone who is at the top of the football chart. In Dallas, it’s owner Jerry Jones. In New Orleans, it’s EVP and general manager Mickey Loomis. In Kansas City, it’s GM Brett Veach.
In New England, according to sources, it’s nobody.
And while Patriots director of player personnel Matt Groh was considered the No. 2 football decision-maker in New England last year with Belichick, the “secondary football executive” position has also been vacant.
Director of scouting Eliot Wolf is running personnel in New England, multiple sources indicate. Wolf, son of legendary Packers executive Ron Wolf, served as assistant GM in Cleveland for two years before joining the Patriots in 2020. In recent years he interviewed with the Bears and Vikings for their GM jobs.
This week, the Patriots added longtime NFL executive Alonzo Highsmith to the personnel group. Highsmith worked with Wolf in Green Bay, and his arrival further proves Wolf’s grasp on the personnel department.
Sources say Highsmith will, in part, help the team transition its grading system. Whereas Belichick’s Patriots had stringent grading rules on specific players and their fits in organization, the Packers’ system has long been noted to emphasize traits like athleticism, versatility and explosiveness.
The Patriots GM job is the last remaining high-level “vacant” position among NFL clubs. Eight teams had head-coaching vacancies this cycle, and they filled well before the Super Bowl. Four teams got new general managers.
There’s been some talk of the Patriots running a search after April’s draft, but sources leaguewide find that unlikely. Why allow the current group to chart the course of the future of the team (especially with the No. 3 overall pick) just to bring in a new leader shortly thereafter?
If Kraft opts to fill the primary football executive position — be it Wolf or anyone — he’ll have to open up a full search, per league rules. That would include interviewing at least two external minority candidates before hiring someone as the primary football executive.
The Patriots were able to avoid a coaching search because there was a contract provision in Mayo’s deal that allowed him to be promoted to head coach if Belichick left. There’s no known provision that exists in New England for the general manager role, so someone filling it would have to get there via a traditional search.
For the Patriots, the drawback in keeping the position vacant is that another team could poach a talented executive without the ability to block the interview. But the Patriots don’t seem to be concerned with that possibility.
Outside of the Highsmith hire, the lack of personnel moves seemingly indicates those in charge in New England believe the issue that plagued the team in free agency and the draft is no longer there: Belichick.
Still, many former and current executives have been linked to New England. Jon Robinson, who started as a Patriots scout before becoming the Titans GM, has been a name thrown about. Former Patriots executive Scott Pioli, as well. Dave Ziegler, who was fired last year as the Raiders GM, worked in New England for nearly a decade. Chiefs assistant GM Mike Borgonzi grew up in nearby Everett, Mass., and interviewed for the Commanders GM job this past month.
But it seems there won’t be any interviews anytime soon in New England for the job. And, technically speaking, there may not even be a “job” at all.