The Patriots Scouts Will Finally Be Heard

By Steve Atkinson

For a long time, the scouts for the Patriots weren’t heard because of Bill Belichick listening to his friends like Michael Lombardi. Many Patriots scouts felt like their time was wasted after they would do all the research all off-season on a certain player then when it came to the draft their voices wouldn’t be heard. The most famous one was the 2019 draft and N’Keal Harry. Belichick friend Michael Lombardi thought the Patriots should draft Harry over D.K. Metcalf. The Patriots scouts thought otherwise. Who did Belichick side with? Michael Lombardi.

Here is a quote from Albert Breer’s story in 2021 saying that Belichick ignored his scouts in the 2019 draft.

The Patriots scouts were never heard

Albert Breer of SI.com recently reported that coach Bill Belichick ignored his personnel department in picking Harry over players like Deebo Samuel and A.J. Brown, both of whom were preferred by the team’s scouts. Belichick ignored that input and instead took Harry, based on Harry’s performance during a non-workout visit to the team and Belichick’s relationship with Harry’s college coach, Todd Graham.

Robert Kraft then would say later in 2021 that the drafts would be more collaborative. However, because of Belichick’s ego, he sabotaged a rookie quarterback and lost his job because of it. Now,  Eliot Wolf and the scouting department can now do their jobs and be heard. Jerod Mayo isn’t going to pretend to know everything like Belichick did after winning three Super Bowls with Brady.

Belichick could get away with the bad drafts because of Tom Brady who covered up everything sorry delusional Patriot fans but he did. I’m excited to see Eliot Wolf and his scouting staff be heard in the upcoming NFL Draft. Here is Wolf at the combine.

Patriot scouts will be more heard now under Eliot Wolf

We changed the grading system. It’s similar to what we did in Green Bay. The previous Patriots system was more this is what the role is and this is more kind of value-based. It makes it a lot easier for scouts to rate guys and put them in a stack of this guy’s the best, this guy is the worst, and everything in between falls into place,” Wolf told reporters. To me, it’s a little bit less about the grading scale and more about the process that we put in place,” he said. “This process is a lot more collaborative. We hear from the scouts more. We’re going to be able to determine together, like, what’s the best thing for the team at the end of the day.”

The Packer Way is more of listening to what the scouts have to say. The old Patriots system was just based on the quarterback who covered up who the head coach drafted that wasn’t good. Again, the Packer Way has gotten the quarterback position correct and hasn’t ruined a quarterback like Belichick did.

With the Patriots out on Calvin Ridley it doesn’t look like they will trade for a receiver before the draft and just focus on that. Eliot trusts his scouts and wants their voices heard which haven’t been in years past under Belichick.

“At the core is draft and develop. But there’s different ways throughout the year to supplement your team, whether that’s free agency, trades, waiver claims. You’re doing yourself a disservice if you just say, ‘Oh, we aren’t going to do free agency this year,” Wolf told Patriots.com. “As we ascend in this program, there’ll be times when it maybe doesn’t make sense to sign as many high-priced free agents. But we have the resources, and we have a lot of improvement that’s needed within the roster.”

I’m excited about this new way of thinking. The old way only worked because you had Brady who covered up all the holes you had everywhere else.  Now, there’s a chance to rebuild and do this the right way with less of a hard-ass vibe in the building.