Eliot Wolf Offers Telling Reflection Of Horrible Patriots Season
The New England Patriots’ season was one of the worst in their recent history, but Drake Maye offers hope for the future.
FOX Sports’ Henry McKenna this week released a feature where he spoke with Eliot Wolf, Alex Van Pelt and multiple Patriots players about Drake Maye. DeMario Douglas shared glowing praise of the rookie when he told the NFL reporter that they would have the “Tom Brady story again.”
The feature highlighted how much belief the team has in Maye and the work Van Pelt did throughout the season to aid his development.
Wolf appreciated the work head coach Jerod Mayo did to communicate the development plan to get Maye up to speed to ensure he was ready whenever he was called upon. The Patriots executive vice president of player personnel praised Maye as a leader and admitted offensive line was “an area that we’re certainly going to look to improve.” The 42-year-old was a behind-the-scenes presence, so his reflection on the season was interesting.
“We’re 3-13, so not good enough. Let’s start there,” Wolf told McKenna. “We had a lot of needs. I would say that I guess personally, what I was expecting maybe a little bit more internal development, which is a good lesson certainly heading into next year, and that you can’t always rely on that. The rookie receivers didn’t have it really that much for us. And, you know, (Ja’Lynn) Polk was sort of in our estimation a plug-and-play. … Ultimately, to answer to your question, our record speaks for itself. We didn’t do enough.”
Wolf’s comments can be interpreted as him taking accountability for not doing more in the offseason. He also might have regretted his past comments where he endorsed the offensive line.
However, the point of a lack of internal development could be a shot at Mayo. Polk certainly was one of the most disappointing players this season, and the fact the Patriots traded up for him instead of drafting Ladd McConkey made the move worse. But perhaps Wolf expected the coaching staff to help out and make things easier for the rookie wideout.
Of course, the “next year” line stood out to Patriots fans since that seemed to imply Wolf would return next season. As for Mayo and the rest of the coaching staff, that’s all still left up to speculation.