The New England Patriots began the season by parting ways with Bill Belichick and naming Jerod Mayo as their new head coach.But there is still much to do. This is especially true when it comes to appointing the head of a division. Phil Perry reported earlier this month that the Patriots would not hire an outside GM candidate and that director of player personnel Matt Groh and director of scouting Eliot Wolff could take on “key” roles in England’s personnel department in New York.
But is it better for the Patriots to have one official general manager with final say rather than splitting the responsibilities? Get the latest updates on your favorite Boston sports teams!
Mark Dominick, who spent 16 years in the Buccaneers front office, including five years as Tampa Bay’s general manager under Tom E. Curran spoke on the new Patriots Talk podcast and emphasized the importance of a defined hierarchy in the building.”I think it would be too much,” Dominik Groh said of the Wolff setup working together as co-GM. “I think this should be decided privately.
You could say it’s a collaboration, but we all know who will make the final decision. “… It will be interesting to see what happens, but I think there will be too many people in the house.”Who should make the final decision in New England? That could depend on where Belichick ends up, as there has been speculation that Groh could follow his former teammate to Atlanta if he takes the head coaching job with the Falcons.
So is Wolf the right person for the GM job? Dominik met Wolf during Wolf’s days in the Green Bay Packers front office from 2004 to 2017 and believes he has the resume for the general manager job. But for Dominic, the relationship between Wolf and Mayo is everything. “He’s had a lot of championships,” Dominik said of Wolff. “He had many different ways of doing things.” “He was probably the greatest coach of all time (Belichick) and his dad was definitely one of the greatest general managers of all time (former Packers general manager Ron Wolf), so I think Elliott is very able to do that.
I think I have a lot of experience because of my job. “It would be an interesting move to have two people in there. To me, what was their relationship like in the building?” That’s where I talked to Coach Mayo and I said, ‘I don’t want anybody to feel comfortable in the building.’ Did you like it? Did you work together? – You spoke with him?Dominique maintained a close relationship with Raheem Morris during their time together in Tampa Bay, which helped them work well together when Morris was named head coach in 2009.
If Mayo and Wolves have a similar relationship then Wolves would be a perfect fit for GM in Dominik’s eyes.“He came into my office before I was a coach and before I was a general manager. We sat and talked,” Dominik said of Morris. “We had a very natural, very relaxed relationship. He found it very convenient to come to the office and we were very close in that regard.
It helped me to know that we could work well together. “What I want to know from Coach Mayo is, ‘How many times have you had a one-on-one, purposeful conversation with Elliott?’ If he feels good, he’s definitely in the building, and if the Kraft family feels good about him, he’ll be fine.
