Eliot Wolf Peels Back Curtain Regarding Patriots' 2026 Drafting Mindset
The New England Patriots were already having a solid draft heading into the third day of the NFL Draft. Adding Caleb Lomu in the first round, Gabe Jacas in the second and Eli Raridon in the third, the Patriots addressed all of their major needs in the first two days of picks.
Even without head coach MiIke Vrabel present in the room during the third day of the NFL Draft, it was "business as usual" for executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf and the Patriots front office.
"I think it was business as usual. A lot of conversations with the coaching staff, a lot of conversations with the scouting staff," Wolf told reporters following the seventh round. "Day 3 of the draft is really the, I would say, scouts' day. It's the chance for some of these unheralded players to have the opportunity to get drafted, maybe some of the guys that some of the coaches didn't even look at."
During his video press conference, Wolf was asked about a number of varying topics, including how new backup quarterback Behren Morton will fit into the offense and what drafting without the head coach next to him was like. He also gave little tidbits about how the team viewed their scouting philosophy and how their draft turned out.
Double Dipping At OT Was Important
In 2025, the Patriots drafted Will Campbell and Marcus Bryant. This year, they added Lomu and Dametrious Crownover. Was it important for New England to double-dip at the offensive tackle position for the second-straight year? Wolf said that it's because it's challenging to truly hit on offensive linemen at a high rate.
"Very challenging," he said. "I would say most of my career, you always think you're going to have enough once the training camp or preseason hits, and you don't. So, having obviously Caleb, but having the opportunity to draft a guy with the experience of Dametrious Crownover at that point in the draft was pretty important to us."
The team spent a sixth round pick on Crownover, and while he may not have a straight line to the starting lineup, the Patriots felt comfortable with him as a depth addition.
"He's really light on his feet, and he's going to have a chance to come in here and compete and obviously going to have to start playing more than one position," Wolf said. "But he was definitely excited when we spoke to him. He's a guy we spent some time with throughout the process, and ultimately, he fell to us there in the sixth."
How NIL Is Impacting The NFL
Gone are the days where college prospects are playing just three/four seasons and that's it. The wild west that is college football nowadays is leading to plenty of older prospects coming out of the draft. For the Patriots, all of their six picks on that day spent at least four years in college, with two of them playing six years.
The journey that some of the newest Patriots took were filled with turns:
- Cornerback Karon Prunty played six years with Kansas, North Carolina A&T and Wake Forest
- Offensive tackle Dametrious Crownover played five years with Texas A&M
- Linebacker Namdi Obiazor played six years with Iowa Western CC and TCU
- Quarterback Behren Morton played five years with Texas Tech
- Running back Jam Miller played four years with Alabama
- Edge rusher Quintayvious Hutchins played five years with Boston College
Why is this, and does it impact how New England approaches drafting certain players?
"I think that's just the landscape of college football now," Wolf clarified. "It's something I know that we're very cognizant of. I think you can get into some trouble if you draft a bunch of 26-year-old guys looking at these four-year contracts, but as you get into Day 3, you're looking for the best players. You're looking for someone to fill a role. We're obviously pretty excited about the guys that we were able to add."
Area Scout Gets Flowers
The Patriots, intentionally or not, drafted three-straight players from Texas schools on the third day. It started with Crownover (Texas A&M) and Obiazor (TCU) in the sixth, while adding Morton (Texas Tech) in the seventh. When asked about that, Wolf made sure to shoutout one of the team's area scouts.
"Alex Brooks does the southwest region for us, and Tucker Ingraham is the cross checker, although Texas Tech this year was Casey Belongia as the cross checker," Wolf said. "That was just kind of how it fell. Obviously, there's a lot of good players in that part of the country, and we drafted three players from really good programs down there."
This article was originally published on www.si.com/nfl/patriots/onsi as Eliot Wolf Peels Back Curtain Regarding Patriots' 2026 Drafting Mindset.
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This story was originally published May 3, 2026 at 3:00 PM.