FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Fast-hit ideas and notes across the New England Patriots and NFL:
1. Cowden addition: One of many signature performs of Ryan Cowden’s soccer profession got here in his senior season at Wofford School. A powerful security and nickelback who additionally served because the holder on area targets, he threw a 29-yard landing on a first-half pretend that helped the Terriers beat Chattanooga 41-34.
“We had been a Division II group and have been shifting towards I-AA, so we have been dealing with groups that have been effectively established and difficult,” longtime Wofford coach Mike Ayers recalled of the 1999 season. “We tried each manner we might to provide you with a method to win. We weren’t above onside kicks, pretend area targets, pretend punts — you identify it, we would do it. Ryan wasn’t afraid to struggle the struggle.”
The play, and Wofford posting a 6-5 file that season, would possibly as effectively be a metaphor for Cowden’s new job with the Patriots as vp of participant personnel.
From a expertise standpoint, the Patriots have important floor to make up with most groups they’re competing in opposition to. Thus, they may must push the envelope and assume outdoors the field — whether or not it is in free company, trades or the draft (beginning with the No. 4 decide).
If January was largely about solidifying first-year head coach Mike Vrabel’s workers, February has turned the main target extra to how the Patriots plan to invigorate their depleted roster.
Enter Cowden, 46, whose rent in New England has largely flown beneath the radar apart from a video on the Patriots’ web site from faculty all-star video games that featured Vrabel, govt vp of participant personnel Eliot Wolf, Cowden and director of school scouting Camren Williams. Cowden was on the Senior Bowl and can be anticipated to be on the NFL mix subsequent week.
The addition of Cowden is immediately tied to Vrabel, as they labored along with the Tennessee Titans for the primary 5 years of Vrabel’s head teaching tenure. When the Titans moved on from basic supervisor Jon Robinson in 2022, it was Vrabel’s hope that Cowden can be elevated to the job that in the end went to Ran Carthon.
Now they reunite in New England, with the delegation of accountability nonetheless coming into focus.
When requested at his introductory information convention in January if he has final personnel authority, Vrabel sidestepped the subject and touted the significance of a “shared organizational imaginative and prescient.”
He repeatedly referenced Wolf because the chief of the personnel workers that day. Quickly after, the group employed Cowden to hitch the high-level ranks that additionally embody director of participant personnel Matt Groh, senior personnel govt Alonzo Highsmith, Williams and director of professional personnel Patrick Stewart.
Cowden, who grew up in Lebanon, Virginia, broke into the NFL shortly after graduating from Wofford in 2000 with a level in finance.
He was planning to interview with pharmaceutical firms in Charlotte when then-Carolina Panthers director of participant personnel Jack Bushofsky recognized him as a robust candidate for an entry-level/internship-type place. Ayers, his soccer coach at Wofford (the place the Panthers held coaching camp), supplied a robust advice.
“He was a kind of guys the place you did not have to work laborious to search out good issues to say about him. He was keen to do laborious issues,” Ayers recalled. “When he was first beginning out as a participant, and struggling just a little bit as a result of others have been higher than him, and then you definately see the entire physique of labor and what he was keen to do as a participant, in fact you advocate it.”
In line with longtime Panthers personnel govt Jeff Morrow, a few of the key tasks of Cowden’s first job have been coordinating scouts’ schedules on the highway, constructing relationships with colleges to make sure the Panthers acquired scouting tape from them and placing gamers on the draft board primarily based on place.
“He knew precisely the place everyone was and had nice retention. He confirmed early on to me that he had actually good analysis expertise,” Morrow stated.
That got here across the identical time that Buffalo Payments basic supervisor Brandon Beane and New York Giants basic supervisor Joe Schoen have been beginning their NFL scouting careers in Carolina. The three retain an in depth bond.
One veteran member of the Panthers’ personnel division in these years stated: “All of them performed off one another, discovered from one another, and made one another higher. Ryan additionally discovered quite a bit from Jack [Bushofsky], who was among the finest evaluators. Ryan was a sponge, very thorough, process-driven, a scientific thinker in a position to make use of all of the instruments obtainable to him.”
Morrow tells one story from the 2014 draft that he believes highlights Cowden’s progress over time and his contributions to the franchise. Scouts have been discussing LSU offensive lineman Trai Turner and have been wavering on whether or not he can be a stable match.
“Somebody had some data that possibly we must always keep away, and that was one in every of Ryan’s colleges,” Morrow stated. “He mainly stood on the desk and stated, ‘No manner — that is what it is mainly all about.'”
The Panthers chosen Turner within the third spherical (No. 92). Turner began 80 regular-season video games from 2014 to 2019 for the Panthers, together with six playoff video games (one in every of which was Tremendous Bowl 50 in opposition to the Broncos).
Cowden stayed with the Panthers for 16 seasons, working his manner up the scouting ranks, earlier than the Titans employed him as director of participant personnel in 2016. He served as VP of participant personnel in Tennessee from 2018 to 2022 and spent the final two years with the Giants as govt adviser to Schoen.
Ayers chuckled when recalling Cowden would “drop the hammer” as a security and referred to him as “a kind of guys that have been bonuses to your group.”
He stated Cowden’s character has a manner of placing others relaxed, with Morrow additionally noting his calmness within the draft room.
On the identical time, Ayers added: “He is a man that is true to what he believes. He isn’t going to waver a complete lot.”
2. Tag window: Tuesday marks the primary day NFL groups can assign the franchise tag to one in every of their free brokers, with the deadline to take action March 4. The Patriots aren’t anticipated to make use of a tag.
One query that receiver-needy groups like New England across the NFL determine to be asking: Will the Cincinnati Bengals tag receiver Tee Higgins — ESPN’s No. 1-ranked free agent — for a second 12 months in a row?
The Bengals have $46 million in cap house, in keeping with Roster Administration System, so there’s at the moment room for them to soak up what might be a cap hit within the $26 million vary.
3. Scout conferences: Patriots scouts have been on the town final week and have been a part of daylong conferences, which is commonplace throughout the NFL right now of 12 months. Groups are making ready for the NFL scouting mix later this month in Indianapolis, with head coaches and/or basic managers scheduled to reply questions from reporters on Feb. 25-26.
4. Campbell at 4?: Will LSU offensive sort out Will Campbell be a attain at No. 4 for the Patriots? ESPN draft analyst Subject Yates’ newest mock draft sparked that query and senior draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr. tackled the subject on the “First Draft” podcast.
“There may be not lots of separation. Folks say you may have him 11 in your [ranking] board, how might you are taking him at 4? The grade between the fifth participant and the eleventh participant/twelfth participant on this draft is not a lot. It is proper there. You are splitting hairs,” Kiper stated. “So to say Will Campbell might go at 4 isn’t a stretch in any respect.”
Campbell’s arm size might be a notable measurement on the mix, as some consider he is perhaps a greater match at guard.
On account of the cluster of gamers grouped collectively after the highest of the draft, it serves a reminder of how important the Patriots’ season-ending win over the Payments was, costing them the No. 1 general decide.
Subject’s mock draft creates a state of affairs for Patriots to think about at No. 4:
🏈 Travis Hunter and Abdul Carter are off the board
🏈 Thus, 1 of high 2 QBs is accessible at 4, probably making a state of affairs for commerce curiosity
🏈 Or simply sit and decide – Will Campbell vs. Mason Graham? https://t.co/54Q4iIJYe8
— Mike Reiss (@MikeReiss) February 11, 2025
5. Maye silver lining: If Drake Maye was a part of this 12 months’s draft class, he would in all probability be the No. 1 decide. That was the opinion a nationwide scout shared with ESPN NFL Nation reporters.
So whereas the worth of the Patriots’ No. 4 decide may not be as excessive as it could in different years, one silver lining for the franchise is that it’s lucky to have landed Maye final 12 months.
“The highest guys on this class would not be within the high three from final 12 months’s crop, for my part,” the scout stated. “Good debate on if they might be within the high 5 really.”
6. Cap examine: The Patriots at the moment have a league-leading $123 million in cap house with $6.1 million in lifeless cash, per Roster Administration System. As for groups with essentially the most house after the Patriots, the Las Vegas Raiders ($96 million), Los Angeles Chargers ($79 million), Washington Commanders ($79 million), Arizona Cardinals ($73 million) and Detroit Lions ($69 million) are subsequent in line, per Roster Administration System.
On the reverse finish of the spectrum, eight groups had commitments that put them over the cap as of Friday, led by the New Orleans Saints (minus-$51 million).
7. Medical checks: Some gamers who ended final season on injured reserve, akin to cornerback/punt returner Marcus Jones, have been additionally again on the town final week for a medical check-in.
Jones missed the ultimate three video games of the common season due to his hip. These are commonplace visits and assist present the group with extra data on gamers’ recoveries.
8. Austin/Brown subsequent?: Unique rights free agent Jeremiah Pharms signed a two-year deal that features $250,000 assured final week, shining a highlight on the Patriots’ different unique rights free brokers — a bunch headlined by cornerback Alex Austin and heart Ben Brown.
Austin and Brown can both signal a one-year deal on the league minimal — which units them up for restricted free company after the 2025 season with an opportunity for a big enhance in wage — or decide to a multiyear deal that gives them with a decrease fast assure.
Austin was approaching by the top of the 2024 season, whereas Brown — who performed 61% of the offensive snaps after being signed off the Raiders apply squad in October — missed the final two video games with a concussion.
9. They stated it: “It is spectacular. Including sure free brokers, draft effectively — it reveals how one can construct a group and you may flip quite a bit round.” — Patriots heart David Andrews, through the “Fast Snap” podcast, on the Eagles after their Tremendous Bowl LIX victory
10. Do you know?: Patriots All-Professional special-teamer Brenden Schooler has led the membership in tackles in every of his first three NFL seasons.
He’s seeking to be a part of Nick Bellore (Jets, 2011 to 2014), Johnson Bademosi (Browns, 2012 to 2015), Justin Bethel (Cardinals, 2012 to 2016) and Tyler Matakevich (Steelers, 2016 to 2019) as the one 4 gamers this century to steer the identical membership in particular groups tackles in every of their first 4 NFL seasons.
