Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - The New England Patriots SHOWCASE Improved Operation

Episode Date: April 29, 2025

The New England Patriots’ NFL Draft weekend showcased the operation, as well as the Mike Vrabel, Ryan Cowden, and Eliot Wolf working relationship. Wolf spoke about the improvements of said operation and we discuss what he had to say.Meanwhile, Eliot Wolf also revealed that decision makers had a debate before picking TreVeyon Henderson. We dive into that and we list our favorite day 2 and day 3 picks.Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms…🎧 https://link.chtbl.com/LOPatriots?sid=YouTubeLocked On NFL League-Wide: Every Team, Fantasy, Draft & More🎧 https://linktr.ee/LockedOnNFL#patriots #newenglandpatriotsSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Amazon Fire TV Stick 4kDid you know your Fire TV is also an Xbox? Turn any TV into your gaming and entertainment hub with Fire TV Stick 4K devices — no console required. Head to Amazon.com/firetvlockedon to get started. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription and compatible controller required.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNBA for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNFL at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year.FanDuelRight now, new customers can get TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)

What a difference a year makes for the Patriots operation. That's where we start on this episode of Locked On Patriots. You are Locked On Patriots, your daily New England Patriots podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. What's up, Patriots fans? I'm your host, Nick Cattles, born and raised in New England. Your New England Patriots expert, host of the Everything Pats podcast, cohost of the Greg Bedard Patriots podcast with Nick Cattles, and also a sports talk show host veteran. On today's episode, we find out who were the subjects of a healthy debate between Patriots decision makers before a critical pick, and we'll give you our favorite of a healthy debate between Patriots decision makers before a critical pick and we'll give you our favorite day two and day three picks. But first, it

was a different world in the Pat Strathroom this year compared to last. We appreciate you joining the show making us your first listen and for being an everydayer, the Lockdown Patriots podcast is a proud partner of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day and this episode is brought to you by the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K. Turn any TV into your Xbox, no console needed. Head to amazon.com slash fire TV locked on to learn more. There were a lot of questions heading into this draft. A lot of questions,

but maybe the most critical, the most important question was whether or not Mike Vrabel, Ryan Cowden and Elliott Wolf could work together. Would this be a harmonious relationship between that trio? Now Vrabel and Cowden worked together before in Tennessee, so there was less question about those two guys. But Elliott Wolf being thrown into this mix, how would it work? Could it work? Would it work? Well, I found it very interesting that Elliott Wolf, speaking with the media over the weekend, said the following about this year's process.

Quote, the whole vision for the team was really good. Not that we didn't have that last year, but there was a lot of clear communication between Vrabel and our staff. He was around a lot in our meetings. It was just a really good process. I would say, and this is on me from last year, we just didn't have an organized enough process.

And Ryan Cowden and Coach Vrabel and Stretch, John Stryker, really came in and helped me organize this. I think we're going to have a productive group. I want to go back to Elliott Wolf saying, this is on me from last year, we just did not have an organized enough process. It was a mess. 2024 was a mess. And that mess began in January, when the Patriots hired Gerard Mayo. The process, the hiring of Mayo, trying to put together a staff, it was a mess. And the Mike Vrabel hire, one of the reasons why, and I would say the most important reason why I was in favor of hiring Vrabel as the coach instead of a Ben Johnson was because

of his experience, his experience in building a program. And this is what we're talking about. Understanding how to build a program. Understanding what it takes to build that program. The communication that is needed. Clearly defining goals to everybody in the organization from the top on down. Define what you want to be as a team. Define what you want to see from your players. Define the player profiles, how they play, what makes them tick, the leadership qualities that you want. Clearly define what you're looking for. No gray area. Clearly define responsibilities so Elliott Wolf knows what is expected of him. Alonzo Highsmith and Matt Groh and everybody across the board.

Clear communication, clearly defining goals and responsibilities. Elliot Wolf in the front office was simply told, do your job. Do your job. And last year, that wasn't necessarily the case. Greg Bedard of Boston Sports Journal, he has written about this. He has talked about this. Elliot Wolf actually took some of the head coach duties last year under his umbrella. Things like scheduling practices and how to deal with the mini camp. Elliot Wolf helped plan that with Gerard Mayo.

You go back to Mayo's coaching staff. Mayo did not have a big Rolodex to work from. A lot of the hires that were made to that staff last year, Wolf had to go through the paces with Mayo. Wolf actually stayed back at Gillette instead of going on the road at times. What a usual GM or president of football operations does. He didn't do that at all times last year during the very important phase of heading into the draft, gathering the intel, having those

conversations with your scouts, doing what you've got to do. He was trying to split his time. Now this is not to excuse Elliott Wolf's last off season and what this team did or did not do because it wasn't good enough. So it's not to excuse everything on Wolf's behalf. It's just to explain and describe what Wolf was doing last year versus what he was tasked to do this year. This year he's been tasked to do his job.

Last year he had to go above and beyond. There were too many newbies. There was a newbie at head coach. There were a number of newbies on the coaching staff, inexperienced guys, not really knowing what to do or how to do it. They were changing over. Some of the front office, Alonzo Highsmith came in. They wanted to start working on the new grading system. Now, they did not necessarily install it for last year's draft, but they wanted to acclimate

the scouting staff to that new grading system that was going to take over eventually. There were so many different things that Elliott Wolf had his hands in that he couldn't necessarily focus, pay attention on the priority. And this year with his scouting staff, he was able to work out everything he had to work out with his staff, go through that information, go through the intelligence that he can gather by talking with other people. Going to Mike Vrabel and saying, this is a list of guys that we think fit the criteria that you set, Mike. And Vrabel makes the final call. I don't think there's much doubt about that. But the ability to compile the information to seamlessly work with people, and to go through the meetings that you have to go through before you get to a draft, before you get

to free agency. Elliot Wolf, in this front office, had the ability to prepare this year. And that's because of Mike Vrabel. That's because Mike Vrabel understands how to run a program. He understands what he has to do as a head coach. He goes out and gets experienced staff. All those staff understand what they need to do to get the job done. You don't have to sit down with Josh McDaniels and make sure he's doing his job.

McDaniels knows what he's doing. Thomas Brown, Todd Downing, all of these guys, Doug Marrone, a ridiculously experienced staff on the defensive end, Terrell Williams, yes, first time DC, but he's been in the league for a long time. So you don't have to worry about that kind of stuff. Vrabel takes care of the staffing. Vrabel takes care of this is what we want from these players and this is how we're going

to run this program moving forward. He has a firm grasp of what he wants to do. Vrabel learned from his time in Cleveland, working with that front office, working with Andrew Berry. Now, after this weekend's draft, you might not feel great about that, the Cleveland part, given what they did in the draft, but I don't think many people have issues with what the Patriots did in this draft. But Vrabel, he

was able to work with that front office in Cleveland hand in hand and truly understand, all right, this is what needs to be done and this is how it needs to be done. And he understood that other side at a much higher level than he did before he went to Cleveland. And that all helped. And so does constant and clear communication. Elliot Wolf mentioned, you know, the meetings and the fact that, you know, Vrabel was around in a lot of the scouting staff's meetings. He was there.

He was a presence. He was listening to what people were saying, going back and forth with information, having those vital conversations, keeping that constant clear communication. And judging by what Elliot Wolf said, it doesn't sound like Jared Mayo was in as many of those meetings. And there was a difference there and it was palpable. And I'm not saying that Mayo didn't want to go to the meetings. Maybe he was just behind because he was trying to figure out what he was going to do because he was a first-time head coach.

Vrabel right out the gates understood day day one, what he had to do. Second one, what needed to be done. And part of that is having constant and clear communication with everybody in the building and allowed Vrabel. It allowed Ryan Cowden. It allowed Elliot Wolf to be ahead of the curve this time, to be ahead of the process. And it's just on paper, but the results

of this year's draft versus last year's draft in the reaction from experts and analysts and pundits should tell you that people believe the Patriots did a fantastic job in this draft. And you have to look back at this process and say, the Patriots were more prepared. They were ahead of it this time. Speaking of the draft, the mystery men that caused a healthy debate between Patriots decision

makers, they've been revealed. That's coming up next as we continue with today's episode of Lockdown Patriots, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. You ever check your bank account and wonder where did all the money go between dining out online shopping, entertainment, it's easy to lose track. That's where Monarch Money comes in your personal CFO, giving you full visibility and control over your finances. Monarch Money isn't just a budgeting app. It's a complete financial command center.

You can track all of your accounts, investments and spending in one single place. So you stop just managing your money. You actually start building wealth. Sounds good, right? Easy collaboration, managing money with your partner, smoother than ever. Can you believe it? You can track shared and personal accounts, set goals, and stay on the same page without the stress. Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKDONNFL at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. That's monarchmoney.com.

Code LOCKDONNFL for half off your first year. your first year. From day one, from day one, Mike Vrabel has had final say. I think all of us understand that. I mentioned it in the last segment. He has had final say. This is Mike Vrabel's ship. He's running this thing. Elliot Wolf, Ryan Cowden are beneath him. If I had to put a number on it, I'd probably say Vrabel's one, Cowden's two, Wolf's three. Maybe you can swap Wolf and Cowden. But what really matters is Vrabel has the final say. He's the one that can drop the hammer, so to speak. And I said before the draft, because this was a question that was posed by many people, would there be issues? Would there be battles within many people, would there be issues? Would there be battles within the draft room?

I wasn't worried about those battles. I wasn't worried about disagreements causing issues. I looked at the personalities and to me, Elliot Wolf is more willing to acquiesce. That's just the feel that I get. It's not that he won't fight. It's not that he won't be confident in his opinion. again, it's not that he won't fight. It's not that he won't be confident in his opinion. And it's not that he won't go back and forth with variable, but Elliot Wolf understands, I believe Elliot Wolf understands that this is variables

team now ownership gave variable the keys. And because of that, his job is to set things up as well as he can provide the information to variablerabel, give his opinion through the work, and then Vrabel will have the final call. But it was interesting on Friday night, Elliott Wolfe talked about a debate that they had regarding a player and what to do. And here's what he said, quote, in all honesty, there were some really good conversations before our first pick.

Again, he's not talking about Will Campbell at four, he's talking about their first pick of night two, which was at number 38. Obviously, we know it ended up being Trevion Henderson. Some really good conversations before our first pick with Coach Vrabel, Ryan, Cam, as in Cam Williams, Matt, as in Mackrow, and Alonzo, Alonzo Highsmith. Wolf said there's just there was just a little bit of a debate about who we were going to pick, and ultimately one of the players we were talking about got drafted. So it didn't end up mattering. But I think it was a really good step in the right direction just for us working together

in our relationship as coworkers because we have to have productive disagreements for this to work. have productive disagreements for this to work productive disagreements You're not going to agree with everything that somebody that you work with has to say and You shouldn't agree with everything that somebody you work with has to say there's got to be at least a little bit back and forth give and take take. Now, Greg Bedard has solved the puzzle as to who the Patriots were debating about. Bedard wrote, according to multiple league sources,

the player the Patriots were discussing was Arizona guard tackle Jonah Savanaya. So it was Savanaya who ended up being at the heart of these conversations, these discussions, the debate. Now it makes sense. It makes sense because Miami moved up and obviously the other player as part of the debate was Henderson because they drafted Henderson, but it makes sense because Miami moved up to the 37th pick

right before the Patriots. And that would give the Patriots the versatility and the comfort of knowing, all right, now we got two guys on the left side that are very versatile. In the worst case scenario, Will Campbell doesn't work out at left tackle. We can slide him in. We can kick him out.

So it made a lot of sense to me when I read what Greg wrote. The consensus, interestingly enough, Savva Inaya was on the consensus board at number 55, which means Miami had to have some very good intelligence that the Patriots were eyeing him at 38 And Patriots got to figure that out if the player was a consensus 55th pick in the draft and you trade it up to get to 37 to leapfrog the Patriots at 38 17 spots earlier Then the consensus was on the player Then you had some really good information. Somebody leaked something. Fascinating. But this whole

disagreement, this debate, this conversation, this discussion, I agree. I agree with Elliot that this is a necessary step. I agree with Elliot Wolf that, you know, if you want a collaboration to work, you've got to have disagreements. A collaboration where everybody just agrees isn't really a collaboration. You want to take different ideas, different thoughts, different evaluations of players,

and then you mix them all up, and you come out with the best answer possible for the organization. And I know that collaboration is a dirty word for some reason to some people here in New England, but collaboration is how pretty much every single organization works in professional sports. Now, I shouldn't say every single there are some there are some organizations like you

could see Jerry Jones likely just ruling the roost down in Dallas. But collaboration, it's an everyday norm in professional sports. You have these conversations between the front office and the coaching staff, you bounce things off each other. And then ultimately, the shot caller, which in this case, I believe is Mike Vrabel, ultimately, one person has to make the call. But the collaboration works. If you have one guy running everything, it becomes tunnel vision. And that's not good. I do wonder who fought for who who was on the Henderson team. Interesting. It would be interesting to find out be a fly on that wall because variable had the vote was Henderson variable guy was variable leaning towards trenches offensive line did variable quote-unquote give one

to somebody on the staff and say all right i like both guys i'm going to go with your guy i i would love i would love to know how that conversation unfolded. We'll never know. Patriots will never release it. They're too busy releasing phone calls from Robert Kraft talking to the prospects that were picked. But I would love to know how that conversation went. And I wonder if these tests happened during free agency. Did you have the same kind of debates during free agency?

And the options are interesting because you had Trevion Henderson, but Wolf also said that they took a number of calls on that pick at 38. So they could have gone with Henderson or they could have traded down. And as we know, the result was Trevion Henderson, Kyle Williams, and Jared Wilson. And I'm absolutely fine with how that unfolded. I don't have any beef with Henderson, Williams, and Wilson being those three picks. That combination after drafting Will Campbell is fine by me. But I would love to have that video.

I'd love to have that audio. All right. Our favorite day two and day three pick coming up next as we continue with today's episode of Lockdown Patriots, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. The NBA playoffs are here. That's right. We know it.

Celtics up 3-1 after winning a game 4 down in Orlando. And FanDuel is giving new customers an incredible way to get in On the action. You just don't watch the game You could actually get involved right now when you join Fandel place your first $5 bet you'll get $250 in bonus bets if that bet that you placed that first one if that bet wins, you know I love how Fandel makes betting so, whether it's picking my favorite team or diving into player props from three pointers to steals to assists. FanDuel has so many ways to bet your favorite player props and

the way that Jason Tatum is playing last couple of games in this series since that wrist injury, I'd be looking at Jason Tatum's props and betting the over on those puppies because man. Oh, man He's playing some great basketball plus after the game tips off. Here's the cool thing You can even combine live prop bets into a same game parlay for a chance to win big Don't miss out head to fan duel comm and claim your two hundred and fifty dollars in bonus bets today again. It's fan duel comm a truly successful draft is all about rounds one through three. If you hit in rounds one through three consistently enough then you are going to be a very good

GM you are going to be a very good football team because hitting on those picks creates sustained success. That's how it gets done. If you miss on a bunch of picks, rounds one through three, you're missing on the best quality players. Now of course, there are anomalies. Of course there are guys that are drafted later after round three that become great players, the greatest player of all time. as we know. We've been told.

We understand, right? Tom Brady went in round six. But when you look at the sixth round, the seventh round, those are really lottery tickets. Those are lotto tickets. If you scratch off a winner, fantastic. If not, oh, well, try again next time. That's what the sixth and seventh round is for,

to go along with UDF time. That's what the sixth and seventh round is for to go along with you DFA's But you get the point Rounds four and five a little less. So a little less So of a lottery ticket you want to hit on a few of those every once in a while Because that will really kind of separate you from the pack But you've got to hit rounds one through three you have to hit and that's why when I look back at drafts I look at the first four rounds. We just went through the draft over the weekend. I put most of the weight on rounds one through four. I'm not banking on five through

seven. If they work out then fantastic. Icing on the cake, but the cake is all about the earlier rounds. Now day three, when we talk about day three, we talk about rounds four and five, and then later on six and seven, the values of these players are varied. Because that's when you have a lot of the scouts players showing up. And what I mean by that is the guys that have worked there took us off across the country. They have their favorites. And when you get to rounds five, six, seven, that's when the scouts stand up. They pound the table for their guy. That's what happens. And also when you're talking about day three, you have a lot of different trades. I mean,

how many trades happened day three of this year? I don't know, I can't even keep count. You're starting round four, you're going through Mr. Irrelevant at 257. There are so many different trades and machinations of trades that happen. You can't even keep up. Rich Eisen on the NFL Network had no idea

the Patriots were drafting Mr. Irrelevant so late in the process, because there's just so much going on There's so much happening so much wheeling and dealing That when you have your chance to get your guy Because you also have unexpected drops. Oh my goodness. I can't believe the guy was there at round four or five or six To get your guy you pick them You just you just pick them when you have a chance to pick your guy you pick your guy, you pick them. You just pick them. When you have a chance to pick your guy,

you pick your guy. Day three, that's what it's about. You don't wanna mess around because you've got so many trades happening. You've got different flavors, so to speak, on that day, more so than day one and two. And so when you have that opportunity and somebody stands up in your organization and says,

that's the guy, I love that guy. You take them, no questions asked. And that's why you see some of these players get drafted maybe a little bit before you expected them to in the later rounds because that's what tends to happen. But I want to give you my favorite day two pick to start and then I'll get to day three. My favorite pick of day two, no doubt about it, it's Kyle Williams. Kyle Williams, and it's not to say that Trevion Henderson isn't a fun player. It's not to say that I don't love the player and I don't love the idea of him and what he brings to this offense, but Kyle Williams is my guy from day two. Wilson's a nice pickup, but I go Williams.

I go Williams because he just brings something so different. Henderson does have the home run hitting ability, the home run threat at a higher level than Gibson and Stevenson, but I feel like Stevenson and Gibson are very productive running backs. Gibson does have the home run ability, even though he's not as exciting as Henderson probably doesn't have the speed, but I've seen him break out plenty of bigger plays in the passing game and the run game. So you had at least some of that element in your running back room, not, not at a high level like Henderson, but you had some of that element. When I look at Kyle Williams, he just has different facets to his game at a higher

level than anybody else in that wide receiver room that you had now. Stefan Diggs, we got to see how he looks when he's back on the field, but I'm going to believe that Diggs is likely going to be out for the first month of the season. That's what I'm going off here. So without Diggs the first month of the season, when you look at that wide receiver room, you didn't have a lot of guys that could separate. Williams separates. Pop Douglas can absolutely give you some yak at times, but Williams was fantastic yards after the catch, creating those extra

yards, turning 10-yard plays into 20 yard chunk plays You didn't have a lot of guys before him that could do that in the wide receiver room He's a big threat 24 7. So I'm gonna go with Kyle Williams day 2. That's my favorite pick of day 2 But I want to pay even more attention to my favorite pick of day 3 Because there's been a lot said about Williams and Henderson and Campbell. But I wanna talk about Braden Swinson. Because Swinson is my favorite pick from day three.

When we look at this defense, for the past couple of years, one element that has been missing consistently is pass rush. And pass rush is so important in the NFL. Edge players are a premium position in the league. And the Patriots just did not have nearly enough pass rush last year. It was abominable. They had to try to blitz constantly to get any kind of pressure.

It was so bad. And I'm sure Mike Vrabel and Terrell Williams, when they sat down and they were looking at this defense, and they were looking at the film from last year, they said, holy crap, we can't get to the quarterback. If you can't get to the quarterback, you're dead. Remember, Mike Vrabel in his introductory press conference, he talked about protecting the quarterback and affecting the opposing quarterback. Pass rush, pressure. and affecting the opposing quarterback. Pass rush, pressure, that's what it's all about. And it is so critical to the game.

And the Patriots have missed that element so much that you might forget that it's such a critical element of the game. Well, obviously, Vrabel, this front office, they're not taking it for granted. They brought in Harold Landry, they brought in Chayson, but then they drafted Swinton. And here's what Andrew Callahan had to write about Swinton.

He finished fourth in the SEC with 59 pressures last year. 59 pressures last season. He had a team high eight and a half sacks. He had a team high 13 tackles for loss for LSU in the SEC. No joke. Pro football focus wrote about Swinton. Swinton was ranked the 47th player on their big board. Do you imagine the 47th ranked player on their big board?

The Patriots got him at what? 146. PFF says on true pass sets, Swinson posted a 91.4 pass rush grade and an overall pass rush win rate of 22.1%. Juice juice to the pass rush. Something that was absolutely needed. And now you feel with Swinson and Landry and Chase on and Milton Williams, of course, in the middle to go along with hopefully Christian Balmore creating pressure through the gut, Keon white being thrown into the rotation, let him

lose, but now you feel like you got a shot and Swinson helps you even if he Kian White being thrown into the rotation, let him loose. But now you feel like you got a shot. And Swinson helps you, even if he just goes out there on third downs every once in a while. His ability to pass rush helps you. And so I just I loved the pick. I loved the pick because I enjoy the player. The player absolutely fits a need. And I thought you got him at unbelievable value, given what a lot of people thought about Swenson.

A lot of people thought he would go well before the mid 140s. And one sneaky thing, one sneaky thing about Swenson, he could end up challenging the staff. Part of the reason why he fell, some people believe, is because when he was at LSU he didn't always see eye to eye with the coaching staff. So it'll be interesting. He might test this staff. The staff might test him. And that'll be interesting to watch. Fascinating, compelling to watch unfold with Brayden Swinson. But my favorite player, my favorite pick day two,

was Kyle Williams. Day three was Brayden Swinson. That wraps up this edition of Lockdown Patriots. On tomorrow's show, we'll look at one of the most polarizing picks of the Patriots draft. Let me know your thoughts on today's topics. Reach out to me on Twitter at Nick C. Radio. Don't forget to throw a comment in on the YouTube channel. And thank you for making lockdown Patriots your first listen today. For your second listen, check out lockdown

NFL scouting, the NFL draft, of course it's over, but the roster moves and news never stops hosts Kyle crabs and Joe Marino will make you the most informed NFL fan this offseason. Find Lockdown NFL Scouting on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts. Have a great day. We'll see you tomorrow.