The New England Patriots have fallen on hard times in recent years, which is a bit of a shock considering their run of excellence over the past two decades. And now, their general manager job may be one of the most undesirable jobs in all of football to some.
We have had both NFL free agency and the 2024 NFL Draft come and go already this offseason. And throughout all of it, the Patriots have not had a general manager the entire time to make the final personnel decision on these fronts after the departure of de facto GM Bill Belichick this offseason.
Most teams get their general manager situation squared away far before the NFL Draft or even free agency. So to say that they still don’t have an official GM in their front office is a bit of a shock.
According to Pro Football Talk, there is seemingly a very good reason for this. Numerous front office candidates have reportedly turned down interview requests for the position, most recently Bills director of player personnel Terrance Gray, who “politely declined” the request.
There is an obvious question to ask here. Is the Patriots’ job so undesirable that potential candidates would rather stay in a smaller role on the teams they are currently on? Or do the Patriots have a plan going on behind the scenes as to who their general manager could be, potentially coming from their own organization?
Well, Patriots Director of Scouting Eliot Wolf has been rumored to potentially be the guy in line to potentially get the job. But as a requirement of the Rooney Rule, teams must at least interview two minority candidates before officially hiring a general manager.
Terrance Gray is notably African American, so he does qualify as one of the two potential minority candidates who would have qualified under the Rooney Rule. So it’s understandable that he may not want to interview with the team if he already knows that Eliot Wolf is the man for the job.
Regardless, the Patriots are struggling at the moment to officially fill their general manager role, which is obviously a bit of a bad look at this point in the offseason.
