During his weekly appearance on the Pat McAfee show on Tuesday, Adam Schefter confirmed that Mike Vrabel is the final authority when it comes to the Patriots football operations.
Schefter was asked about Eliot Wolf and his response seemed to indicate that Vrabel is indeed the final decision maker when it comes to player personnel.
“Eliot Wolf––I don’t even think he’s got the GM title, but he’s staying in his job, whatever that is. And they’re going to bring Ryan Cowden from the Giants, who worked with Vrabel in Tennessee. He’s going to come in and assist under Eliot,”
Schefter’s answer is a bit of a departure from what Vrabel said in his introductory press conference on Monday.
“I think the most important thing is there’s a shared organizational vision for what we want to do and how we want to work and how we want to acquire players. There’s numerous ways to acquire players through free agency, trade, draft, post-draft process, post after training camp,” he said. “Again, I’m just excited to sit down with Eliot and his staff… I’ve had conversations with him, but I need to sit down with his staff and figure out where we’re at, what we need to do.”
Vrabel said all the right things, but according to Schefter, he is the final decision maker.
“Vrabes is the man,”
He has to be. As many have said from the beginning, he does not take this job if he doesn’t have some level of personnel control. He knew Robert Kraft wanted him and he leveraged that to his advantage both financially and from a power standpoint.
Will Vrabel have as much power and influence as Bill Belichick did? No. But he will control the football side of things and that is all that matters to him.
Vrabel will have plenty to figure out with the Patriots having the 4th pick in the NFL Draft and $130 million in cap space. Wolf and the front office will do all of the leg work but in the end, Vrabel will make the final decision.
After one season of collaboration, the Patriots football operations are under the control of one man again. Mike Vrabel pulled a Napoleon. It will be fascinating to see all of this unfold in the coming days and weeks.