FOXBOROUGH — Eliot Wolf conducted the Patriots' traditional pre-draft press conference on Monday. While there was no huge news out of it, there were several notable nuggets that help explain New England's draft process.
That Wolf spoke, and not Mike Vrabel, had nothing to do with the recent NY Post story - it was announced on a press release on March 11. Vrabel did conduct the press conference last year, but everything was so new — and Vrabel had barely worked with Wolf — that the head coach likely wanted to continue speaking for the organization. A year later, everyone is familiar with each other, and everyone has carved out their roles. Vrabel did briefly appear on the media's tour of the Patriots' new facility, which was very impressive (we're not allowed to give details until the public opening).
Some key moments from the session with Wolf, who appeared way more relaxed than he has at any previous point during his tenure with the team:
• The Patriots have a new, dedicated, state-of-the-art draft room in the new facility that will house the staff during the draft. It features an enormous LED draft screen that has to be some 100 feet wide and 20 feet high. "We don't have the little magnets anymore, which a lot of people are very excited about," Wolf said. "But from a technology standpoint, it's state-of-the-art. It's first-rate. It's made things a lot easier."
• On whether the board is set yet: "It is not finalized. The college scouts are actually here now. ... We're still tweaking. We're not through every position this round yet, but, you know, they're doing some breakout groups right now on down here, working through clumps of players and just kind of making sure that we have those guys in the right order. So, I would say the hay is not quite in the barn yet."
• On if the team could move up in the draft: "We're open to anything, whatever way we can possibly improve the team, we're open to. We have 11 picks; most of those are kind of later in the draft, but we do have some flexibility with those 11 picks. I think it'll depend a little bit on how the board falls. If we view that there's a player that, whether he's falling or there's somebody that we think we need to go get, we'll be open to those opportunities."
• On how strong this draft is: "I think if you had to look historically, like this draft probably isn't great ... but if we do our job and we do everything right, we're going to be able to get a good player with every pick, and that's our intention. I feel that way about every draft no matter what happens, there's always avenues and ways to improve the team. ... I think it's a pretty strong draft on the offensive and defensive line - secondary, maybe not as much. Receiver and tight end are pretty good in comparison to some of the recent years. So yeah, we're excited about some of these opportunities, and there are some that match up to some positions of need for us."
• They're open to adding another QB in a variety of ways - could be the draft, or UDFA or pro free agency.
• I asked Wolf if the team is improved over what walked off the field at the Super Bowl: "Yeah, I think so. Some of the free agent moves that we've done, like primarily that, because we haven't done a lot of other things, but yeah, I think so. And then we'll continue to supplement it. We've definitely increased our flexibility in terms of, like, what exactly the needs. Again, the needs on paper are just for this year. But yeah, I think we've improved."
• On if it's important to build the depth on this team with some of the later picks: "I think depth is important. Obviously, you know, I think the more picks that you have, the better chances you have of hitting on players. We have four sixes right now. If we had one six, it probably puts more pressure on that player or puts more pressure on us to have that player be successful. But I think every team has is different in terms of where the depth is. I think we have depth at some positions, and would like to improve depth at others, and I don't think that's unique."
• On Christian Gonzalez and AJ Brown: "No Gonzalez update other than I'll continue to publicly say that we want Christian here, and again, he's under contract, so we would expect that. But as far as players on other teams again, going to keep the door open to anything that we think may improve our roster, whether that's with the player you mentioned, or other players."
• No one has called the Patriots about trading with their spot in the first round.
• Vrabel's involvement: "Very involved. Business as usual, he's been in there. I would say he's been in there with us, probably this round of meetings, probably a little bit more than he was last year, just because he's probably more comfortable, just where things stand from (the coaching staff) standpoint. But he's been in there. He's been contributing. He's watched a ton of the players. He tries to watch every player that we give each position coach. He watches that whole, call it "the coaches list," and so he he has an opinion on these guys, and it's helpful, because sometimes there's players that the scouts like, me included, and he'll be like, 'Well, this is the reason that maybe this guy's not the best fit for us.' And so we continue to compile all the information together. "
• Linebackers draft class: "Yeah, I think it's solid. I think it's probably a little bit similar to the way it was last year. Maybe for me, at least. I thought it was gonna be a little bit better than maybe what's come out. But I do think it's a good position day three from a depth standpoint. I think there's a lot of players that you could justify using a day three pick on."
• If the team will use all their 30 visits, and the importance of them: "Yeah, we will use all 30 and plus, because we get BC and UConn and some of those guys that didn't come in for local day have come in separately. It's very important. And we bring guys in for a variety of reasons. Whether it's to get medical to get him in front of Mike. You know, if it's a guy we like that doesn't have a lot of red flags, like, hey, 'Mike's gonna love this guy.' We do some of that ... don't tell Mike that. And then you know, whether, if there's some questions about the character. They're learning the position fit, or we think this guy is definitely going to be able to play X receiver, but we want to bring him in and make sure that we think he can play multiple spots. And how early could that be? So there's a variety of reasons that we bring guys in, and they've been great this year. I mean, we haven't eliminated anyone, as we've done in the past. So it's been positive."
• The role analytics play: "So we hired Max Mulitz, who was previously with the Dolphins. And he's working in conjunction with the personnel department, and he's been in all of our meetings, and it's been, he's been great. Every player has a profile. The thing I like, particularly about Max is, is he's not so married to the data that he can't ... we'll retort him and say, like, Well, what about this? And he has enough common sense to be like, Well, yeah, that makes sense as a reason that the model gives this projection. Let me adjust it a little bit. So it's been pretty cool to kind of integrate that into our process. And really, like anything, it helps with outliers. If he's got a model that says the guy should be a fourth-rounder, and all of us have it with a seventh-rounder. Like to me, that is, is cause for us to go back and ask questions. Why is that the case? Do we need to sit down and watch more film on this guy? And to me, that's the role. It's to help you get as much information as you can to make the right decisions."
• On what they're looking for at edge: "I never want a smaller guy. No. Faster guy. I said I never want a smaller guy. We could complement our room with some speed. I think that's evident. Dre'Mont and Harold and Elijah and you know, some of the other guys we have, they all have their skill sets we would like to get faster. You know, Dre'Mont is a guy that can play across the line run games. I mean, he can, he can sneakily beat you with speed. But that's probably not his bread and butter. And so that's an area that we're looking to try to improve the depth on the roster."