Head coach? Check.
Never mind.
As in forget about a legitimate search. Forget about listening to some outside candidates from successful organizations who might actually offer fresh ideas, and help the Patriots get up with the times. More importantly, get up off the mat.
Instead, with the most important draft in recent memory lying ahead with the No. 3 overall pick, and a good chunk of money available to spend in free agency, the Patriots are punting – for now, and possibly down the road – when it comes to the all-important GM position
One report Saturday suggested the Patriots were standing pat at least through the draft with the people they have in-house. Eliot Wolf (current scouting director) and Matt Groh (current director of player personnel) would be kept and run the draft. And perhaps, they’d be kept beyond.
Seriously?
While sources believed Wolf would be the one Robert Kraft eventually tagged as the GM, with the possibility of Dave Ziegler coming back and re-joining the front office in some capacity, the latest news isn’t likely to get the masses fired up going forward.
Retaining Wolf, who is well-respected in league circles, is one thing. But Groh has been attached at the hip with Bill Belichick. He’s been schooled to think the Belichick Way when it comes to drafting and acquiring players.
Given the failures of recent drafts and personnel decisions, wouldn’t the Krafts want to entertain an alternative for this all-important draft and offseason? Wouldn’t they, at the very least, want to bring some other candidates in, and hear an outside perspective?
Because right now, this process just seems messed up.
Obviously, with Jerod Mayo already named as the head coach to replace Belichick, it’s important for him to have a comfort level and be aligned philosophically with the general manager.
It would be nothing short of a disaster if Mayo and the front office weren’t on the same page. Of course, Mayo knows both Wolf and Groh, and there’s something to be said about continuity. But this development still shouldn’t sit well.
Change was needed. There are still too many remnants of Belichick left over. Of course, Belichick built a dynasty and one of the most successful franchises in NFL history.
Of late, however, his way wasn’t working, especially when it came to picking the groceries. The way this is shaping up, it appears Kraft believes Belichick was the problem. Period. End of story.
At least Mayo is trying to gain some perspective from the outside.
According to a league source, Mayo has spoken with several candidates who don’t work with the Patriots, which is good. Other MassLive sources believe he’s also going to have a say in personnel. The problem here, is the Krafts should be doing the same when it comes to the search for a GM since they’re the ones ultimately making the decision.
As it is, they didn’t conduct a single interview with any other possible candidates for the coaching job. They already had it set up in Mayo’s contract that he would be the heir to Belichick whenever that came to pass. That allowed the Patriots to avoid going through a league-mandated search.
It was no fuss, no muss.
But shouldn’t they conduct a legitimate search for the GM? Aren’t they required by the league to do that? Maybe not. While Belichick performed the role, and all decisions went through him, he never had the title. The Patriots only listed him as being the head coach.
Perhaps that’s another loophole the Krafts are exploiting to keep everything in-house and familiar.
In any case, if the Krafts don’t bring anyone in for the GM search, and are comfortable with the people in-house, they’re missing out. They’re blowing a chance to hear what some good candidates have to say and are losing out on the benefits of the process.
Given what lies ahead, they should be taking a more measured approach.
Who knows, maybe one of those candidates would have blown them away?
Instead, the way it looks, they’ll never know if someone other than the known in-house commodities would have been just what the doctor ordered, and a perfect collaborator with Mayo.
With a 4-13 team, one that’s been on the decline the past four years, and one that’s been run and managed by the same person the past 24 years, what’s wrong with keeping an open mind and at least listening to a fresh perspective?
Looking at the list of available candidates, Chiefs assistant general manager Mike Borgonzi, for one, falls into that category. He’s from Everett and played fullback at Brown.
He’s been with the Chiefs for the past 15 years, and has some ties to the organization. He first joined the Chiefs as a college scouting director under former Patriots VP of player personnel Scott Pioli and has steadily risen up the ranks. The Chiefs have appeared in three of the last four Super Bowls, winning twice, and Borgonzi has been involved in those all-important personnel decisions working alongside Chiefs GM Brett Veach.
Kansas City has risen to prominence with stellar drafting and impactful free-agent additions. Borgonzi had a voice when they moved up the board to draft Patrick Mahomes.
Shouldn’t the Patriots want to hear what someone like Borgonzi has to say?
Like many other teams, the Chiefs make use of analytics quite a bit. The Patriots, with Belichick in charge, did not.
As for the collaborative effort that Kraft craves now that Belichick has left the building, what’s the harm is seeing how that works elsewhere?
Kansas City and most NFL teams rely on that approach. Andy Reid used to have the same all-encompassing role as Belichick when he was with the Philadelphia Eagles. He relinquished that in KC. There are more checks and balances. And listening to Kraft Thursday, that’s what he’s seeking.
“All of us need checks and balances in our life,” Kraft said. “I call it, we need Dr. No around us, people to protect ourselves from ourselves. And as things evolve, and you get more power, sometimes people are afraid to speak up. I’m speaking about all companies and I think it’s good to have checks and balances and once you have it, it is kind of hard to pull it away and expect to have the accountability you want.”
So bring in Borgonzi. Bring in Cincinnati Bengals senior personnel executive Trey Brown, who has also worked under Howie Roseman in Philadelphia, and knows Mayo from his brief time working for the Patriots from 2010-12.
Borgonzi and Brown are just two GM possibilities on the circuit. One might think it would behoove the Krafts to listen how some of the other organizations in the NFL have fostered success.
Guess not. The GM search appears to be in the bag as well.
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