Will Wolf And Cowden Stay With Patriots In 2026? Breer Shares Intel

Will Wolf and Cowden stay with Patriots in 2026? Breer shares intel originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

When Mike Vrabel arrived in New England in January, the commonly-held belief was that Eliot Wolf was on borrowed time.

While Wolf was technically the Patriots’ de facto general manager and had led the personnel department in 2024, it was quickly established that Vrabel would have final say on personnel decisions in 2025, with Wolf serving as more of a holdover from the previous regime than a key decision-maker going forward.

And yet, it appears Vrabel and Wolf have worked quite well together, collaborating during NFL free agency and the 2025 NFL Draft — along with vice president of player personnel Ryan Cowden — to bring in a host of new talent that’s helped New England go 12-3 through 15 games. In fact, Wolf ranked second in Tom Pelissero’s early NFL Executive of the Year poll, behind only Seattle’s John Schneider.

Before the Patriots’ Week 17 matchup with the New York Jets, Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer joined Patriots Pregame Live to share what he’s hearing about Wolf’s future in New England, noting he believes there’s a “likelihood” that Wolf and Cowden both remain with the Patriots in 2026.

“From everything I can gather, the relationship between Mike Vrabel and Eliot Wolf worked from the start,” Breer said. “And this was really in large part because Mike Vrabel reached out to the scouting department early on and sat in on meetings, and his early start with that stuff led to some of the biggest acquisitions they had.”

While many of the Patriots’ acquisitions had connections to Vrabel from his days in Tennessee, Breer pointed out two specific examples where Wolf and Vrabel collaborated to bring in players who would have key roles on the team.

“There were other guys that they’ve hit on that have been big-time players for the team, where the coaching and scouting operations came together,” Breer said. “One is (defensive tackle) Khyiris Tonga. He’s somebody who hadn’t played a ton of football, even though he’d been in the league for a while, but his tape showed a strong, square player who played hard.

“The coaches liked him more in the Vrabel scheme than what he was doing in Arizona, the scouts and coaches aligned on that, and then they signed him the first day of free agency.

“Another example would be (safety) Craig Woodson, who’s their fourth-round pick. Some people are surprised that he’s starting, but this is somebody that both the coaches and scouts in Foxboro viewed as a guy who could be a Day 1 starter.

“He’s a little small for the position, but they looked at this tape and they couldn’t find a weakness. They were aligned very early on in the process on Woodson.

“So, examples like Tonga (and) Woodson created this environment of, ‘OK, we can work together.'”

With Wolf atop the front-office masthead as the Patriots’ executive vice president of player personnel, Breer noted that Cowden could pursue greener pastures if another GM job opens up around the NFL.

“Ryan Cowden, he is not the general manager. Eliot Wolf is essentially the general manager right now,” Breer said. “So, with the (GM) jobs that could be available — Miami, maybe Atlanta — I would think that Ryan Cowden would have an interest in pursuing a shot at becoming a general manager.

“… I think the idea of becoming a general manager elsewhere would appeal to him, but this is a good operation right now, and it wouldn’t surprise me at all to see all three guys (Vrabel, Wolf and Cowden) back in 2026.”