Who could the New England Patriots hire as their next general manager?
FOXBORO --The Patriots acted quickly to fill Bill Belichick's shoes on the sideline, hiring Jerod Mayo as the team's new head coach on Friday. Now Robert Kraft has to fill the void in New England's front office.
Not only did Belichick lead the Patriots on the field, he also had final say and control of the Patriots roster. Kraft said that power was not bestowed upon Belichick until after his third Super Bowl title with the team, and it was something that he "earned."
Belichick will likely be the last of that kind, as teams are favoring a more collaborative decision-making process these days.
"All of us need checks and balances in our life," Kraft said Thursday. "We need what I say -- I call it, we need Dr. No's around us -- people to protect ourselves from ourselves, protect us from ourselves."
In short, head coaches are no longer the ones shopping for the groceries. At least not exclusively.
And with Mayo becoming a first-time head coach -- not to mention the youngest head coach in the NFL at 37 -- it would be a lot to ask for him to also handle everything that goes with building up a roster. That's not to say he won't have input into that process, but someone else will likely be calling the shots.
Whoever comes in, they'll get to make the third overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft and work with a ton of cap space this offseason. The Patriots absolutely need to get this hire right if they want to return to contention in the near future.
Who could that be? Here are a few options for the Patriots -- both in-house and outside of the organization.
Patriots general manager in-house candidates
Elliot Wolf
Wolf, 41, would be the top in-house option for the Patriots. He joined the front office in 2020 as a consultant and was elevated to the team's director of scouting in 2022.
He also has a lot of experience outside of New England, spending 14 seasons with the Packers in a number of roles, including director of player personnel from 2015-16 and director of football ops. from 2016-17. He left Green Bay when Brian Gutekunst was named GM in 2018 and went to Cleveland, where Wolf served as the Browns assistant general manager for two years before joining the Patriots.
Wolf is the son of Ron Wolf, who is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame after a long career as a scout and executive.
Matt Groh
Groh was Belichick's right-hand man in the front office the last two years, serving as New England's director of player personnel. He's been with the franchise since 2011, starting as a scouting assistant before working his way up to New England's director of college scouting in 2021.
Groh is the son of longtime NFL and college football coach, Al Groh.
Other potential candidates for Patriots general manager
Adam Peters, San Francisco 49ers assistant GM
Peters is one of the hottest GM candidates out there, as he's helped build the incredible San Francisco 49ers roster over the last three seasons. In total, he's had a 21-year career in the NFL, which started in New England.
Peters was a scouting assistant for the Patriots in 2003 and 2004, when New England won back-to-back Super Bowls. He was in charge of pro scouting in 2005 and was an area scout from 2006-08 before heading to Denver to be the regional scout for the Broncos.
He worked his way up to be the Broncos director of college scouting in 2016, leaving after eight seasons to become the vice president of player personnel for the 49ers. Now he's in line to get his own team this offseason.
Update: Peters is expected to become the new GM of the Washington Commanders, per NFL Insider Ian Rapoport.
Jon Robinson, former Titans general manager
Robinson also got his start in New England, serving as an area scout for the Patriots in 2002. He was named the director of college scouting in 2009 and held that position until 2013, when he left to become the director of player personnel for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
After three seasons in Tampa, Robinson was named the general manager of the Titans in 2016. He helped turn that franchise around -- along with head coach Mike Vrabel -- with the Titans making it to the AFC title game in 2019. He was fired by Tennessee in 2022.
Dave Ziegler, former Raiders general manager
Yes, another "outside" candidate with Patriots ties. Ziegler was in the New England front office for nine years, starting as assistant director of pro scouting from 2016-15 before becoming the director of player personnel after Nick Caserio's departure in 2021. He picked up three Super Bowl rings from his time with the Patriots.
Ziegler, 46, did not get his start in Foxboro though, spending three years with the Denver Broncos as a player personnel assistant and a scout prior to his arrival in New England. He left the Patriots along with Josh McDaniels in 2022 to become the GM of the Las Vegas Raiders, but was fired (along with McDaniels) after the Raiders stumbled to a 3-5 record in 2023.