The New England Patriots have officially moved on from Bill Belichick after 24 years and have already named Jerod Mayo as the team’s 15th head coach.
Belichick is the greatest coach of all time, but he is seemingly losing touch towards the end of his career, like every other all-time great has across other sports.
It rarely ever ends in a fairytale way, and the Patriots are headed for a true, long-term rebuild this offseason, after a 4-13 finish to the 2023 season. They haven’t won a playoff game since the 2018 season, and they got knocked out in the first round by the Tennessee Titans in the 2019 season.
The NFL has changed since Belichick and Tom Brady dominated it, and owners are opting for former players to run their football teams more so than ever. Players across the league seem to play hard for former players, and those former players know how to connect with their team.
However, moving on from Belichick means the Patriots might not be as good to start. I still think Belichick is a good overall coach, but in the long-term, New England will be in a much better position to compete.
Over the last few days, there have been reports as to what the Patriots might do to replace Belichick, who had his hand across all of the team’s football operations. It is much harder to entrust Mayo, a first time head coach to immediately take all of that on.
Let’s take a look at what a potential New England front office could look like to support the post-dynasty era Patriots. It is likely that Mayo and top coaches will have a hand in evaluation and team building, but it will take a few different pieces to replace what Belichick did for this team over the years.
Vice president of football operations: Trey Brown
Vice president of football operations is essentially the general manager role without the GM title. Trey Brown already has ties to New England considering he was an area scout for the team from 2010-2012.
He then moved to the Philadelphia Eagles in 2013, before getting promoted as their director of college scouting from 2016-2018. After Philly, he moved on to the Cincinnati Bengals as a senior scout and has been there since 2019.
He has experience with owner Robert Kraft, and he has made the Super Bowl at least once at every stop. Since 2017, he has interviewed for GM duties three times.
Brown could finally get his shot with the Patriots, and the VP of football operations title would give him the final say. But he would still be in collaboration with Jerod Mayo and other front office personnel.
Director of player personnel/assistant GM: Eliot Wolf
Eliot Wolf, son of former Green Bay Packers executive, Ron Wolf, has been with the Patriots since 2020, but he has a history as an executive since 2004.
He started with the Packers in 2004 and stayed there in various roles until he left for the Cleveland Browns in 2018 for their assistant GM role, before coming to the Patriots in 2020.
Wolf was promoted to the director of scouting in 2022, and this would be another promotion with him likely getting plenty of looks, if the rebuild is successful.
Wolf would be named director of player personnel but would function as an assistant GM to Trey Brown. He would handle contract negotiations, trade negotiations and provide recommendations to Brown.
Director of scouting/pro scouting: Camren Williams
Camren Williams is the son of former Patriot Brent Williams, who played as a defensive lineman for the team from 1986-1993. Camren played at Ohio State and joined the Patriots after graduation as a scouting assistant in 2016, getting incremental promotions along the way.
Williams would be moving on from his director of college scouting role and would take on the scouting department as a whole, while also controlling the pro scouting department.
He would appoint NFL scouts to review active rosters and represent all of the scouts (both college and NFL) to Trey Brown and Eliot Wolf, offering specific talent recommendations. His role would essentially be finding the specific player for the need expressed based on the direction set from Brown.
Director of college scouting: Christian Sarkisian
Christian Sarkisian is a rising scout that was with Trey Brown in Cincinnati and was the one who originally made recommendations to the Bengals brass when scouting wide receiver Tee Higgins.
Sarkisian would come to New England with a promotion to the director of college scouting. He would assign area scouts and be in charge of creating the team’s draft board and the criteria for their grading system on players.
He would also be the voice of the college scouts to offer recommendations during the draft and UDFA period and would be in charge of scheduling prospect visits and meetings.
