When asked Tuesday who would make the final call on New England Patriots personnel decisions, head coach Mike Vrabel appeared to point the finger at himself.
"I wouldn't be here, and I wouldn't have wanted to be the head coach here, if I wasn't comfortable in my impact on the roster," Vrabel told reporters at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis.
When asked a similar question Wednesday, Patriots executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf gave a similar answer.
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"Ultimately, it's my final say," Wolf said.
So, what gives? Where does the buck stop for the Patriots when it comes to acquiring players via free agency and the NFL Draft during a critical offseason?
For starters, context is important. Wolf told reporters New England's front office setup is "similar" to last year's setup -- when Wolf was the team's director of scouting but also served as the de facto general manager -- but insisted that player acquisition will be a collaborative effort between himself, Vrabel, VP of player personnel Ryan Cowden, VP of football operations and strategy John Streicher and the scouting department.
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"I would just say, listening to Coach Vrabel, 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 I'll continue to work with Ryan and Mike and Stretch (Streicher) and the scouting staff, (director of research) Richard Miller, everybody, to make those decisions the best we can for the team."
Wolf also insisted Vrabel is on board with this collaborative approach, which Wolf says the two discussed when Vrabel was first hired in January.
"Mike said it (Tuesday) -- and this is something that we talked about in the interview process -- Mike wouldn't have taken this job if we weren't comfortable with each other," Wolf said. "There's not going to be Mike's guys or Eliot's guys, there are going to be Patriots guys, and we're excited to share the vision to work together to improve the roster."
From a logistical perspective, it makes sense for Wolf to technically have final say over personnel decisions. If Vrabel had final say in his head coach role, it would be harder to justify Wolf's title (and salary) atop the Patriots' front office masthead. As our Phil Perry reported last month, Patriots owner Robert Kraft wants to give Wolf's new grading system time to eventually produce better results, so it isn't surprising that Wolf remains the leader in the personnel department.
But while that's true on paper, it can also be true that Vrabel will play a primary role in "calling the shots" behind the scenes, as Tom E. Curran reported in January. So in practice, we could see a setup where Vrabel identifies a player he wants to bring in, then "collaborates" with Wolf and the rest of the front office before Wolf actually executes the move.
Regardless of who's performing what specific role, both Wolf and Vrabel have plenty of work to do to overhaul one of the worst rosters in football.
"Last season, the roster ultimately was on me," Wolf added. "We were 4-13. Just didn't get enough done. 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 that they'll get to that point."