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According to CBS Sports insider Jonathan Jones, the Patriots have begun the process of hiring a general manager or head of football operations. It is the first time owner Robert Kraft has had to hire a general manager in his tenure as owner. 

Jones says that the Patriots have already vetted outside candidates and have received permission to interview them. Unlike when they hired Jerod Mayo, who had it in his contract that he would be the next head coach of the team, the Patriots must follow league protocol in this search. 

Current director of scouting Eliot Wolf has been running the football operations side of things since the Patriots parted ways with Bill Belichick. Wolf has done a good job of managing the salary cap, free agency and the draft. 

He got the opportunity to prove what he can do after owner Robert Kraft announced in January that he would be sticking with the current front office structure through the draft. 

“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. “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.”

Kraft added: “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.”

The collaborative approach seemed to work based on the early returns but the Patriots cannot just give Wolf the job. They are going to go through the process as expected and see what other candidates are out there. Wolf is the presumptive front runner but it does not mean the job is his. 

The Patriots did request permission to speak with Bengals senior personnel executive Trey Brown but Brown declined the interview request. New England will have a tough getting candidates to interview if the feeling around the league is the job is Wolf’s and the team is just going through the process. 

Despite that, the Patriots should interview enough candidates that they should get a feel for what is out there around the league and whether or not those candidates are better than Wolf.

In the end, Wolf will more than likely be the guy. If nothing else, the Patriots are going their due diligence.