By Chad Graf, Manny Navarro and Bruce Feldman
After announcing their parting ways with coach Bill Belichick last month, the New England Patriots announced that they may add to the lineup as they visit Belichick’s new world.
After a few weeks, they seem to be making meaningful gains.
The Patriots are finalizing a deal with University of Miami’s Alonzo Highsmith, a league source said.
Highsmith will serve as Miami’s general manager of football operations beginning in 2022. Before that, he worked for the Cleveland Browns, Seattle Seahawks and Green Bay Packers.
Highsmith As a player in the 1980s, he starred for the Hurricanes and won a national championship. In the year He was drafted with the No. 3 pick in 1987 and played six years in the NFL before joining the Packers in 2012 as a senior executive.
What does this mean for veterans?
This is another clear sign that Elliott Wolff has a leading voice in the Patriots. In the year He came to New England as a consultant in 2020 and was named director of scouting two years later.
Now, signs point to Wolf being the decision maker for the Patriots front office. As Jerrod Mayo has built his coaching staff in recent weeks, he has been heavily involved in the Wolff relationship. Mayo’s new offensive coordinator, Alex Van Pelt, will join Wolff in Green Bay, as well as Ben McAdoo, who the Patriots are adding as an offensive assistant, and Jerry Montgomery, who the Patriots are adding as a defensive assistant. Now, it appears more people with ties to Wolff are stepping into key decision-making jobs with the Patriots.
When the Pats parted ways with Belichick, that created a vacuum in power and decision-making in the front office. A month later, signs indicate that Wolff will take over those powerful jobs. – Chad Graf, veterans beat writer
Highsmith’s role in Miami
Highsmith, a Hurricane standout, has been a valuable asset to coach Mario Cristobal for the past two seasons as the program’s general manager of football operations. He spent a lot of time evaluating transfer opportunities and working with Cristobal on administrative tasks like budgeting, culture building and both off and on the field.
Miami has signed back-to-back top-10 recruiting classes and selected former Washington State quarterback Cam Ward through Portal this offseason. Highsmith finally achieves what he wants by bringing talent to the world and helping Cristobal change the culture. – Manny Navarro, Miami winning author
What he meant to the storms.
Optical Highsmith was a great hire for Cristobal and Miami because of his reputation in the NFL world and the UM football community. Highsmith knew what it would take to build UM into a powerhouse, and for a program that had been reeling for two decades, his arrival was a welcome sight, a much-needed ego boost.
On the job, Highsmith was the key person for Keynes when evaluating prospects. In the program, according to UM sources, he was seen as a great asset because he had such a careful and trained eye. The coaches and staff leaned on him. Everything filtered down to Highsmith, but in the end Cristobal was the final decision maker on that front, apart from the NFL world. – Bruce Feldman, top college football expert
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