For the first time since late last summer, Patriots executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf fielded questions from the media on Wednesday at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis.

New England’s de-facto GM addressed a wide range of topics including the team’s roster construction in 2024 and goals for the 2025 campaign. 

Here are a few highlights from Wolf’s latest press conference with the media. 

Even though Jerod Mayo was the one fired just hours after New England’s miserable 2024 season came to an end, Wolf acknowledged on Wednesday that he was the one responsible for building a flawed roster last spring. 

“Last season, ultimately the roster, was on me. We were 4-13. Just didn’t get enough done,” Wolf said during his presser on Wednesday. “Certainly the free-agency class didn’t live up to our expectations. The draft class, it’s too soon to tell, but we were expecting a bigger impact from some of those guys and we’re still hopeful they’ll get to that point.”

While Mayo’s coaching struggles and fumblings with the media loomed large last year, it was tough to ignore the deficiencies on New England’s roster. 

Despite Mayo’s claim that the Patriots were going to “burn some cash” last offseason, Wolf struggled to land any players who moved the needle for a roster in desperate need of playmakers. 

Antonio Gibson and Austin Hooper were solid pick-ups, but Wolf had to settle for wideout K.J. Osborn (seven catches, 57 yards) after failing to land a No. 1 WR like Calvin Ridley or Austin Hooper. 

Wolf’s decision to sign Chukwuma Okorafor (who primarily played right tackle with the Steelers) to play left tackle in 2024 was also a disaster.

Okorafor left the team in early September, playing just 12 snaps and creating a revolving door at the tackle position that forced both Vederian Lowe and Demontrey Jacobs into starting roles. 

While Jacoby Brissett and Drake Maye were regularly under duress due to a porous O-line, New England also didn’t exactly bolster its pipeline of young talent through the NFL Draft. While Maye looks like a slam-dunk pick at No. 3 overall, other 2024 Draft pickups like Ja’Lynn Polk, Javon Baker, and Caedan Wallace left a lot to be desired during their rookie campaigns.

“The fans, understanding their frustrations, I share those frustrations. It’s been difficult,” he said. “Every hit on Jacoby or Drake during the season, I felt responsible for that. Just ultimately we didn’t get enough done up front.

“The game is always won on the lines — offensive line, defensive line. Not just because of the Super Bowl — it’s always been that way. And ultimately, just didn’t do enough to improve the roster to get it to where we need it to be.”

New England struggled to attract talent this past offseason. Despite entering free agency with more than $100 million in cap space in 2024, New England still had $54.1 million in space by early April, per Over The Cap.

The Patriots will have even more cash to burn this year, with New England leading all NFL clubs with $128 million in cap space. But will free agents want to come to a rebuilding team like New England — even if the Patriots can offer up the heftiest contracts? 

Beyond that fiscal flexibility, Wolf stressed that more players will want to join New England moving forward due to Maye’s potential, which was put on display during his rookie season. 

“Offensively, quite a bit but defensively some as well,” Wolf said of the appeal of New England this offseason. “Drake showed tremendous improvement throughout the season. There’s still plenty of room to grow. Having that guy in place is paramount to our success. We’re really excited for the future that he can bring to our organization.”

For all of the issues with New England’s roster in 2024, Maye elevated his team’s ceiling on offense. The 22-year-old QB earned Pro Bowl alternate honors after throwing for 2,276 yards with 15 touchdowns and 10 interceptions over 13 games. He also rushed for 421 yards and two touchdowns over 54 carries. 

“First of all, the person with Drake is phenomenal. He’s a tremendous worker. He’s a tremendous teammate. All of that is really genuine,” Wolf said of his QB. “You can see the work and effort he put in and how his teammates gravitate to him. Those are things we’re all really looking forward to. 

“Again, we won 4 games. Drake obviously did some good things. He made a lot of mistakes. I think he’d be the first one to tell you that. As we move forward, it’s positive but it’s not where we need it to be.”

One thing worth keeping tabs on in Foxborough moving forward is the power structure in place between Wolf and new head coach Mike Vrabel. 

Even though Wolf remains in place as the franchise’s de-facto GM, he stressed that Vrabel will have plenty of input regarding how he wants this roster constructed moving forward. 

“There’s not a lot of GMs or people in my position in this business that are going to force players on a coaching staff,” Wolf said. “Certainly the best decisions are made together, and going to continue to work with Mike, and (VP of player personnel) Ryan (Cowden) and Stretch (VP of football operations and strategy John Streicher), and the scouting staff, Richard Miller and everybody, to make those decisions the best we can for the team.

“Ultimately, it’s my final say, but… Mike wouldn’t have taken this job if we weren’t comfortable with each other,” Wolf added. “There’s not going to be Mike’s guys or Eliot’s guys. There are going to be Patriot guys, and we’re excited to share the vision to work together to improve the roster.”

Wolf’s comments fall in line with Vrabel’s discussions with the media on Tuesday. While New England’s new head coach stressed that he will have a collaborative partnership with Wolf, he plans to offer plenty of his own input as to the type of players he wants to add to the roster. 

“We want to continue to have great conversations with the personnel staff, with me, with Stretch, with coaching,” Vrabel said.

As the Patriots focus their efforts on trying to surround Maye with playmakers moving forward, second-year pro Ja’Lynn Polk stands as an intriguing player on New England’s roster. 

A second-round pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, Polk was tabbed as a high-floor pick by New England. The University of Washington product earned high grades for his hands and route-running talents.

But just about everything went haywire for Polk this past season as he finished the year with just 12 catches off 33 targets for 87 total yards. 

As Polk’s drops started to pile up and confidence began to erode, he didn’t make things any easier for himself away from the field — stating that he had the “best hands in the league” in October before later posting a cryptic message to social media after dropping several passes in a loss to the Jaguars in London. 

While Polk’s reps dried up during the final weeks of the 2024 season, Wolf stressed that the Patriots also didn’t put him in a position to succeed last year. 

“He was a young player that came in, and he’s mature, he’s smart. I think organizationally we maybe put too much on his plate early, and I think that really kind of stunted his growth a little bit,” Wolf said of Polk. “He’s aware of that, and we’ve talked about it. And he’s going to continue to work hard and rehab and do the things that are necessary to improve.”

Even though Maye impressed out of the gate in 2024, Vrabel noted on Sirius XM Tuesday that the team isn’t giving up on the rest of that draft class moving forward. 

“They had some talent. Didn’t have the impact that maybe everybody would have wanted. But that’s okay. I’m trying to explain it to some of those guys — the whole ‘sophomore slump.’ Maybe we just had the ‘freshman 15’ and now we have to lose a little weight in the second year.”