After conducting an interview process that included speaking with two former members of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ front office in Brandon Hunt and Samir Suleiman, the New England Patriots are hiring Eliot Wolf as their new Executive Vice President of Player Personnel.
According to a tweet from NFL Network Insider Tom Pelissero, the Patriots hired Wolf on Saturday, a move that was largely anticipated this offseason.
The Patriots were in search of a new defacto GM after firing head coach and GM Bill Belichick this offseason. Though the Patriots don’t call the position General Manager, the EVP of Player Personnel is essentially a GM job.
Pelissero noted in a follow-up to Wolf’s initial report that his duties will include overseeing the personnel department, managing the salary cap, and controlling the 53-man roster, all of which are duties of a GM.
Prior to announcing the hiring of Wolf, the Patriots interviewed former Steelers’ front office members in Brandon Hunt and Samir Suleiman for the position. Suleiman spent the last four seasons with the Carolina Panthers as the director of player negotiations and was the salary cap manager before finding himself out of a job after the Panthers hired GM Dan Morgan this offseason.
Suleiman was with the Steelers from 2013-2020, working under now GM Omar Khan as the team’s Football Administration Coordinator.
Hunt was with the Steelers from 2009-2022 as the Pro Scouting Coordinator. He left the Steelers in the summer of 2022 and joined the Philadelphia Eagles after being passed over for the GM job that went to Khan, and the assistant GM job that went to Andy Weidl.
Hunt is currently the Director of Scouting for the Eagles.
Wolf, the son of legendary former NFL GM Ron Wolf, takes over as the top front office member for the Patriots as the franchise transitions from arguably the greatest coach in NFL history into a new era alongside first-year head coach Jerod Mayo, a former linebacker for the Patriots.
Prior to landing the EVP of Player Personnel gig with the Patriots, Eliot Wolf was a consultant for New England in 2020 and 2021, and then was the Director of Scouting in 2022 and 2023. Previously, he was an assistant GM in Cleveland in 2018 and 2019 and spent 2004-2017 in the Green Bay Packers’ organization in various roles.
