Alert: Patriots’ Eliot Wolf Unleashes 2026 Offseason Thoughts

Elliott Wolf opens up to the media about this past offseason and most of what he had

to say was music to my ears.

This is Lockdown Patriots.

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As I happen in, I am your host, Nick Cattles, born and raised in New England,

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Also, as many of you know, the co-host of the Greg Bedard Patriots podcast with Nick Cattles

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The Pats know they need to get better and sound prepared to do whatever it takes to do.

So in the second segment, we'll have the latest on the futures of Christian Zollis, Christian

Barmore, and one of the Pats, most important free agents.

But first, Elliott Wolf opens up on the offense.

There are lots of questions about the offense after the postseason.

We just witnessed.

We don't have to talk through it anymore.

We know what happened in Elliott Wolf on Tuesday, two reporters and two Todd McShay on

Todd McShay's podcast on Netflix.

Wolf seemingly was transparent about an awful lot.

Let's start where everybody wants to start the offensive line.

Morgan Moses, we wondered, would Morgan Moses decide to hang them up?

He's going to be 35 years old.

He played in every single game in 2025, which is a testament to his toughness and his mentality,

his approach about the game.

But Wolf told the media that Moses is expected to return in 2026.

So your starting right tackle in 25 should be expected to be your starting right tackle

in 26.

And to me, this is great news.

Now Moses did not have a very good Super Bowl, but who did on the offensive side.

The reason why I think this is great news is that when you look at all these analytics

and stats and you watch the film, Morgan Moses was good.

If not very good this year, pro football focus had him ranked as the 20th overall offensive

tackle.

We're talking both right side and left side.

He was ranked 20th in the entire NFL.

That's pro football focus.

When you look at ESPN's past block win rate, run block win rate.

When you look at those analytics, Morgan Moses was the seventh best tackle in football

in run block win rate.

He was excellent in the run game and he was pretty darn good in past protection.

And of course you get the added bonus of his leadership.

He oozes leadership.

Great news.

Moses returning.

How about Will Campbell?

We've talked about Will Campbell.

I'm sure you've talked about Will Campbell.

Now Elliott Wolf had a chance to talk about Will Campbell.

And this is not breaking news, but Will Campbell is not moving to guard.

Wolf to the Todd McShay podcast quote, we're not moving him to guard.

He's a young guy who had a tremendous season.

Three of his four worst games came in the post season.

I agree with that general assessment of Campbell's play in 2025.

I thought overall until you got to the playoffs after the injury, I thought on balance.

He had a good season and in spots he looked really good.

Now yes, other times he struggled against some of the best past rushers in football like

Miles Garrett.

But overall, nobody was complaining about Will Campbell before his MCL injury.

So I agree with Wolf on Campbell three of his four worst games were in the post season.

Now as far as the injury goes.

And Wolf was at the podium speaking to the media is that I personally, I personally did

not see the same level of lower body strength that you saw before the injury.

I should add Mike Reese is reporting that there's no surgery needed for Campbell's name.

And that should be expected given that it's an MCL usually don't have surgery for an MCL.

But according to Wolf, he said, yes, there was a difference.

Campbell pre injury, Campbell post injury.

He said, quote, I think the film would attest to that, unquote, some might disagree with

that.

That is wolf's evaluation.

I'm not an expert on offensive line play.

I know when a guy does a good job of past protecting, I know, you know, when a guy does

a pretty good job of run blocking, I'm not going to break down technique and hand placement

and anchoring and all of that.

It's not my expertise.

I will tell you that Elliott Wolf is not the only person on the planet with experience

and scouting or experience and football that feels like the injury impacted Campbell's

post season play.

There have been multiple former offensive lineman who have posted on social media that they

agree that the injury impacted Campbell negatively.

Now, we talk about the length concerns.

The length concerns still do not bother Elliott Wolf.

He's not bothered by Campbell's length.

He said at the podium that Campbell has a set of skills that enable him to play with that

arm-length, really quick out of a stance, technically sound.

He's adding more and more different pass sets.

He's 22 years old and we expect some improvement.

I think it's too early.

I've said this.

I'll say it again.

I agree with wolf.

I think it's too early to give up on Campbell because he struggled against elite defenses,

top tier pass rushers while dealing with an injury after playing a ton of football and

only being 22 years old.

Benefit of the doubt.

Going to roll with him in 2026 and hope that he does better.

Now as far as Rashid Walker, we talked about this on Tuesday's episode, the idea of the

Patriots being interested in Rashid Walker from the Green Bay Packers wolf shot that down.

But he did admit that the Patriots need offensive tackle deck, quote, Vinerian lows a free

agent.

Morgan is 35 years old and you know, he played awesome this year, but he's 35 years old.

So tackle would be a need for our team.

It's not if they need tackle depth.

It's how they're going to get it and how much they're willing to invest into that position.

Do you use a first round pick on a right tackle?

If that person is not going to start for you in 2026.

Now what stuck with me about the offensive line, most of all was how Elliott Wolf handled

questions regarding Jared Wilson's position versus Will Campbell questions again.

Wolf came out and said we're not moving Campbell to guard.

But when he was asked about Jared Wilson, he told local reporters, quote, there's openness

to everything with him.

He had never played guard before.

He had good moments and bad moments, but he certainly has the physical ability to play

there and he's also got the intelligence and the vocal ability to play center.

So I think those are conversations that we're still having.

That is not an emphatic stance.

It is not defiant.

It is not strong.

Elliott Wolf did not go out there today speaking with the media and had plenty of opportunities

to do so.

He did not go out there and say, well, you know, we're going to keep Wilson at left guard.

We're not moving him to center.

No, he's keeping it open ended, which is good.

As I've said, since the Super Bowl, I would move Jared Wilson to center and I would have

him compete against Garrett Bradbury.

Let's talk about Stefan digs.

The Patriots have about two weeks to make a digs decision when you look at the money,

right?

About middle of March, he gets guaranteed more money.

He has a history of short stays with football teams.

I would say that Wolf was noncommittal on digs asked about the legal situation.

He said, well, just kind of see what comes of it.

Asked if it was important for digs to return.

He said, quote, Steph had a tremendous season.

Again, the leadership that he showed was great.

And these are conversations that will continue to have and weigh everything and talk about

different things as we move forward, unquote, that is, that is not saying we want Steph

back.

We're going to do everything we, we have to do to bring him back.

It is in the best interests of our football team to have Stefan digs back.

One of that, keeping it fluid, have to have these conversations.

I think there's a number of reasons why Elliott Wolf answered the question the way he did.

It's tough to commit to digs given the legal situation.

You do want to see how that plays out.

Part of it is financial because you have no idea what's the fond digs is going to ask

for.

You know that you have to restructure his contract because the cap number is not palatable.

So what is digs going to look for?

I'm not sure Wolf knows.

And of course part of it is other conversations you'll have this week.

Like can you trade for AJ Brown?

If you trade for AJ Brown, are you going to keep Brown and digs on the same roster with

their cap numbers?

Probably not.

I would love to in a perfect world.

But as you look at it overall in the cash spending, it's tough to believe that you would

put that much money towards the receiver position.

So Wolf did not give the impression that they wants to find digs back at all costs.

Speaking of why receiver number one need is the alpha wide receiver or at least one of

the top needs.

I don't know if we need to number them.

But as far as receiver goes, the number one need in that room is the alpha Elliott Wolf

did not back away from that.

He was asked about the Patriots needing a number one wide receiver.

He said, quote, yes, we are looking at the wide receiver position to try to improve depth.

The more playmakers we have, the better we're going to be, unquote, playmakers, playmakers,

playmakers, can't agree more with that sentiment.

The more playmakers we have, the better we're going to be.

The Patriots added playmakers last off season, Kyle Williams, Travy on Henderson.

They did some work there, right?

They need to do more work and you hope that those guys develop and improve and continue

to get better throughout 2026.

So yes, you need more playmakers and the plan seems to be going out and adding to that

wide receiver room with somebody who's bona fide.

I don't think Elliott Wolf is talking about adding more, you know, number three or four

receivers or five receivers.

But of course, that's the plan.

You now have to execute.

Can they get the guy that they need?

Will they be able to acquire an AJ Brown?

Will they be able to sign an Alec Pierce?

Will they go into the draft and find a way to move up to draft one of the top four receivers

and football in this football draft?

Will one of those guys fall to them at 31, having a plan is great, but you need to have

the means to execute it and you need some things to fall your way.

All right.

Elliott Wolf sounds optimistic about Christian Gonzalez's future.

But when it comes to Christian Barmore, it's a little bit more complicated.

All that and more next.

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There are less questions I think about the defense on the surface than there are about

the offense.

But don't get it twisted.

There are still some very important decisions that need to be made this off season.

And we begin with Christian Gonzalez now talked about this last week.

I think it's a no brainer to extend Christian Gonzalez.

I think he was excellent for most of this season.

I thought he was really freaking good in the playoffs.

I thought he was tremendous in the Super Bowl.

If you're going to extend somebody, you extend somebody at a premium position who is young

is considered a top five or six guy at that position.

Gonzalez check, check, check, check.

I think it's a no brainer.

What did Elliott Wolfe have to say to the media?

Well, he said, quote, this is from Phil Perry, Christian obviously was good before and

made an even more significant jump this year.

And he's someone that we want to work with in the future.

Obviously, we'll have those conversations at the appropriate time.

Unquote, now, I know my buddy Greg Bedard did not love the at the appropriate time.

I know some people on Twitter were tweeting at me saying, I didn't really love the answer

regarding Christian Gonzalez.

I had no problem with this.

He says that obviously Christian was a good player before and made an even more significant

jump this year.

So A, he's telling you that the team appreciates Gonzalez's talent and they know he's really

freaking good to he said, quote, he's someone, Gonzalez is someone that we want to work

with in the future.

Obviously, he added, obviously, to me, that's like no brainer territory.

He's someone we want to work with in the future.

He's somebody we want to have on the team in the future.

Obviously, why would you think otherwise?

That's what I took from that line.

They, they know he's really good.

They want him to be part of this future.

This is more commitment than you heard about Jared Wilson moving to center, more commitment

than you heard about Stefan Diggs.

The final line about having conversations at the appropriate time, I believe the Patriots

know how much money Gonzalez is going to ask for roughly.

You just look at the top of the corner back market.

Now Devon witherspoon of Seattle, he's up for an extension as well.

So the timing is going to be interesting because you have Devon witherspoon looking for

an extension and Gonzalez is looking for an extension.

So who gets to that extension first?

But I think overall you see commitment from Wolf in this answer.

And I think, you know, in my mind, the way that I look at this in some might disagree.

I know my buddy Greg does.

We add a back and forth on the latest Greg Baudard Patriots podcast with Nick Cattles.

Thank you.

But you know, the pushback is, well, I want more urgency and I want them to say we're

going to get something done.

We're going to sit down with this reps this week and well, maybe the Patriots are looking

at this and saying we know what Gonzalez wants.

We know roughly the ballpark we have to get to to make him happy.

We're going to get there.

Let us work with other issues that need to be addressed right now.

You don't need to address Christian Gonzalez immediately.

You don't need to get Gonzalez done tomorrow.

And by the way, nothing precludes the Patriots from getting a Gonzalez done deal, you know,

at the end of this week or next week, they can get a deal done at any point over the

next couple of weeks, month, two months, just because, you know, Elliott Wolf says that

the appropriate time will have those conversations.

Maybe the appropriate time is post-convying.

Maybe it's post-free agency.

I don't, I don't know why you would have to have this extreme urgency to get done, you

know, with with a Gonzalez contract before you do anything else.

You have plenty of time.

Now if you start getting like into camp and deep into the summer and there's nothing,

that's when we might have a conversation.

How about Christian Barmore?

We've talked about the idea of him maybe being moved, the legal issues, uh, he's going

to get a nice chunk of guaranteed money soon.

He also had issues in 2024.

He also got benched for her first quarter by variable this past season.

Wolf said this about Christian Barmore, quote, Christian has grown up quite a bit.

Hmm.

He's grown up quite a bit, which means he had a lot of growing up to do, right?

And we continue to help him with that.

So he's not fully developed yet as a man, according to Elliott Wolf, Christian Barmore has

grown up quite a bit and he still has at least some to go.

He's continued to improve on the field.

He had a little bit of a lull in the middle of the season there.

He wasn't playing quite as well, but you know, kicked it up again at the end and continues

to be a key cog in there for us, unquote.

Now the lull in the middle of the season.

I don't think co-incidentally happened when Milton Williams was out.

And I'm not saying that Christian Barmore is not a good football player.

Barmore is a really good football player, but there's no doubt that Milton Williams

injury and his absence directly impacted Barmore's play negatively.

It's also obvious from the beginning of that answer that Barmore has some maturity issues

and he has to continue to work on those.

He's still a young man.

I get it.

But again, the question is, are you going to say he has to finally get it and if he

doesn't, then we're going to move on because we don't know if we can fully trust this guy.

If he's fully with the program, when is that line?

Where is that line?

It kind of like listening to Elliott Wolf discuss Christian Barmore, it feels like a

Mike Vrable decision.

It feels like a coach's decision.

It feels like a staff decision.

And of course, Mike Vrable has the final say on everything.

But it really feels like, hey, if Mike Vrable thinks that he can handle Barmore, Barmore

will stay in New England.

If Vrable feels like it might be slipping a little bit, see you later.

That's what it feels like.

Finally, as far as Jalen Hawkins goes, of course, unrestricted free agent, there's interest

in bringing him back, Elliott Wolf said, quote, he's certainly someone that we'd welcome

back.

He talked about maybe, you know, he has the right to be a free agent.

So it's to be a situation where you know the safety market is not booming.

And it's not like Jalen Hawkins is an awesome safety.

He's a good, solid safety.

There are other safeties on the market.

So I don't think you have to show an obscene amount of urgency to sign Jalen Hawkins to

an extension.

So this feels like we are pretty confident we can make the money work.

But if we try to approach Hawkins on extending him right now, he might be asking for a little

bit too much.

So maybe we let the market develop a little bit, let Hawkins as agents speak to others at

the combine this week.

And then maybe we can kind of get back together and figure this out.

As far as the safety position itself, you know, I've brought up the idea of keeping Hawkins

because he and Watson, Craig Woodson have a good relationship, went to Cal together.

And it was interesting because Elliott Wolf talked about the traits that they looked

for in a safety and he said, being able to communicate, set the defense, anyone that comes

in has to be able to communicate and be smart.

And that's why I love the idea of continuity, keeping Jalen Hawkins and Craig Woodson together

as a combo on the back end.

It makes a lot of sense to me, but it also has to make financial sense for the Patriots

because again, Hawkins is good, but he's not really a guy that you need to overpay

for.

Coming up, Wolf makes it clear that the Pats are not feeling fat and happy after their

surprise run to the Super Bowl.

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away from hitting 9,000.

So don't forget to help us out again, like comment and sub a difficult needle to thread

for the Patriots this off season.

I don't believe that this team is one to two pieces away from winning a Super Bowl.

I don't believe that, you know, if if everybody was going to stay the same age, if injuries,

you know, we're going to be impossible to happen in 2026, you might have that conversation.

But we've talked about it.

You've got a number of players aging at some pretty important positions.

You were up until late in the season, pretty healthy, relatively speaking.

And of course, you're going to have a tougher schedule in 2026, et cetera, et cetera.

I don't think you're one to two pieces away, but you also had the Super Bowl run, which

I think sets expectations at a certain level and it should.

But you know, how do you deal with it?

How much do you give up?

How many assets do you give up to make a big move?

I'm not sold on the idea that the Patriots have two gigantic moves and then this off season.

I could buy one significant move from outside the organization.

I could believe they'll trade for one of AJ Brown or Max Crosby or somebody of that ilk.

I don't think you'll see two of those type of deals.

So it's really important to try to figure out how the Patriots are going to approach

this thing.

And it sounds like they're going to kind of approach it with a similar frame of mind

as they had at the deadline, the trade deadline, which was, you know, we're not, we're not

there yet as far as a complete roster to be giving up a bunch of assets for older players.

And Elliott Wolf, I thought was pretty clear that this off season is part of a process.

And they're not looking at this as, oh, we're just putting some finishing touches on the

product.

Elliott Wolf was asked about whether or not he views this as a rebuild this off season.

He said, I don't know.

I'd call it a rebuild.

I think we have a nice core of players.

We're all aware that we have more work to do.

Now when Wolf sat down with Todd McShay, as far as setting up Drake May for success, Wolf

answered, quote, we're still building.

We'll always be building every roster is different.

I think we're still at the point.

We're still trying to acquire as many good players as we can, as many good players as

we can.

Not saying we're trying to acquire a player or two that we need as many good players as

we can get because we know we need multiple good players.

We need a number of good players and, and I think this is the right way to do it.

Like I love being realistic.

And I think this is a realistic way to look at your roster saying it was a great run

terrific, but we're not one or two pieces away.

We need to continue to build this thing.

We want a complete roster.

We're still at the point of trying to acquire as many good players as we can.

We have more work to do.

Don't get fat and happy with what you did in 2025 and say we got it all figured out.

We're just going to go out and get one dude.

We're good to go.

I think that would be the wrong approach.

Now we'll also talked about spending from Phil Perry, quote, Robert and Jonathan talking

about the crafts.

Obviously, I've been nothing but supportive of whatever we wanted, supportive of whatever

we've wanted to say it a little bit more clearly for you.

To do to try to improve the team, I think myself and coach Vrable being sort of stewards

of that and understanding what's important, you know, we haven't been told no very often

if at all.

We're excited to have their support and be able to try to build this thing, continue

to try to build this thing, unquote.

And I would point to a Tom Kern article last March at NBC Sports Boston about the team

spending that the team has spent cash.

The team has spent money, especially recently, recently.

Last four or five years, pretty good job of spending money.

And we're not even taught about the coaching staff.

But if you want to throw that in, you could.

Now, you know, finding a balance between being aggressive and being reckless is, is what

I think the Pats need to do this off season.

I've said that a number of times.

I'll continue to pound that point throughout this off season, aggressive, but not reckless.

And that means you can't be afraid to make a deal.

And that includes trading your first round pick.

Wolf on dealing number 31, according to Doug Kai said, quote, we're open to anything.

If we think it's going to help team both in the short and long term, then it's

something we'll look at unquote.

Now that's the key part of this, both short and long term.

So AJ Brown to the Patriots, for example, think AJ Brown can help them for the next three

or four years.

Or do they look at AJ Brown as a stopgap, a bridge guy, one or two years.

If it's the latter, I don't think they're going to make a deal for AJ Brown.

If they look at Max Crosby and they say Max Crosby has like a year or two left of really

good football, I don't think they make that move.

I think they would be willing to deal their number one pick this year.

They'd be willing to move that pick if they brought a player back that could help them

for a wider window for a five years versus, you know, one or two or two or three.

And I think that's the right way to look at it.

I think Max Crosby has three or four good years left at least.

I think AJ Brown has, you know, I'd say three good years left.

Elliott Wolf is also aware that they need more pass rush.

By the way, Harold Landry is expected back in 2026.

That's good news.

If you get the Landry from the first month or so before the injury this past year, that's

really good news.

But I still think he can be a piece.

I've talked about this prior podcasts.

I don't see Landry getting cut.

I don't see him getting traded.

I think he's a valuable piece to the puzzle.

I don't know if he's going to play, you know, 80% of the snap 70.

I think he can help you though.

He's good against the run.

He does have pass rush juice left in those legs.

If those legs can stay healthy, that's the biggest question he needs to stay healthy.

I did think it was pretty telling that wolf was talking about the past rush and mentioned

the interior.

Some people in football think the interior is more important than the exterior.

And he specifically brought up Kyrie's tongue and Cory Dirted, which I think tells you

that as far as Elliott Wolf goes, he's really high on those two guys.

He thinks those guys will be impact players.

Now of course, Kyrie's tongue is a free agent.

You got to get that done.

But mentioning those two names, that seems noteworthy to me.

And by the way, Elliott Wolf shot out to him for listening to the Lockdown Patriots

podcast because he agreed with what we talked about on Monday that this draft is deep

at edge.

The Patriots need help at edge said, I think it's, quote, I think it's fairly deep class

at that position, obviously an area of need for our team.

I think it matches up nicely on quote, yes.

And I pretty much feel like it's a guarantee they're going to draft at least one edge player

and probably draft an edge out of the first second, maybe third, but probably one of your

first two picks.

All right.

That wraps up this edition of Lockdown Patriots.

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Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.