FOXBORO — The architect of the team with the longest title odds in pro football plans is keeping the faith.

Not for a championship, but progress.

During an exclusive interview with the Herald, Patriots executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf reiterated his belief in a roster he’s overhauled by more than 40% since taking over last winter. Despite such change, the Patriots remain saddled with one of most questioned offenses in the NFL; a familiar sore spot for a franchise that has struggled to score points.

But Wolf, believing the offense will ultimately swim and not sink, wants to see his team hit the water first.

“I think it’s hard to talk about living up to expectations before we play the games. We don’t know how it’s going to settle,” Wolf said. “We’ve had a lot of moving pieces on the offensive line. We’ve had a lot of moving pieces at receiver, trying guys at different positions, different groups. We feel good about the groups that we’ve assembled. We’ll see how it goes.”

How it goes will be directly tied to a suspect offensive line Wolf chose to bolster with two waiver claims last week, adding guard Zachary Thomas and left tackle Demontrey Jacobs. Clearing two roster spots for players with three combined game appearances and zero career starts seemed to indicate a lack of belief in the Patriots’ current linemen. Wolf explained those moves by describing Thomas and Jacobs effectively as long-term investments, calling them “young, ascending players we wanted to take a look at.”

Which brings us to the timeline of the Patriots’ rebuild.

Last week, Wolf retained all eight members of his first draft class on cutdown day, despite shaky preseason performances from most of the Day 3 picks, plus undrafted safety Dell Pettus. The Patriots’ coaching staff will now prioritize snaps for young players like them, a pillar of the roster-building philosophy Wolf learned in Green Bay and has installed in New England. The organization’s guiding principle will be draft and develop; a rebuilding plan that can take years to successfully execute.

New England Patriots director of scouting Eliot Wolf speaks during a press conference at the NFL football scouting combine in Indianapolis, Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

“I would expect this year, we will be getting younger as the year goes along, as opposed to the other direction; whether that means through attrition or injury or whatever,” Wolf said. “I think everyone (knows) we’re trying to win now, obviously. But there is an eye for the future, and developing this core of players that we maybe haven’t had the last couple years.”

More than most, rookie quarterback Drake Maye will embody that core. Last week, coach Jerod Mayo named Jacoby Brissett the Week 1 starter, even after Maye made a late push for the job by out-performing Brissett over the last two weeks of summer. Conversations shared between Wolf, Mayo and offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt led to Brissett’s coronation, an expected decision after he took more than 98% of the first-team quarterback reps in training camp.

Wolf provided further insight into that decision.

“One thing with the quarterback position specifically is, we’ve seen Jacoby do it. We’ve seen him excel in this offense,” he said. “I think his best year in the league was in this offense, when he was in Cleveland. And so there’s just more of a known quantity there with what we have with him, and we feel like he gives us the best chance to win here early in the season.”

The next big decision facing the Patriots’ leadership is when to start Maye. Like Mayo, Wolf admitted long-term considerations factored into the team’s decision to delay his NFL debut.

New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye (10) passes against the Washington Commanders during the first half of a preseason NFL football game, Sunday, Aug. 25, 2024, in Landover, Md. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

“Obviously, it’s going to depend on how the team’s doing, and if Jacoby’s lighting it up, the chances of Drake getting in there are going to be lessened. But we just feel like the worst thing that could happen is you put a guy in before he’s ready, and then you have to take him out,” Wolf said. “And whether that’s him or somebody in another position, for a young player to not be ready and be put in that position, it can be counterproductive to their career.”

Except such caution with Maye begs this question: why not sign a veteran backup to protect against the possibility an injury to Brissett might force Maye on the field prematurely?

“Well if an injury arose, then Drake is the backup quarterback, and he might be thrust in there before he’s fully ready. But we do have confidence in Drake,” Wolf said. “It’s not like we’re just going to let him collect dust for the year. He’s going to be out there in practice taking reps, he’s going to take some reps with the (starters), he’s going to take some reps on the scout team and continue to progress and develop in that regard.

“To the point of a veteran quarterback, Jacoby has been pretty durable throughout his career. We expect that to continue. And again, every situation that arises, we will have a contingency plan for. We’ve talked about different things in the building at every position.”

New England Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo, center, talks with team owner Robert Kraft, left, and Eliot Wolf, team executive vice president of player personnel, during an NFL training camp on Thursday, July 25 in Foxboro. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Amid all the long-term planning, Wolf rejected a rebuilding philosophy that recently reached the NFL after decades of practice in the NBA: tanking.

Tanking front offices actively increase their odds of landing the No. 1 overall pick in next year’s draft by sitting veterans midseason and/or trading them for future picks. Tanking teams also field inexperienced players who otherwise might not see game action were it not for the franchise’s goal of losing games today to win tomorrow. Recent examples include the 2019 Dolphins and, arguably, last year’s Washington Commanders.

“I think tanking cheats the game. (We) would never get in a situation where we think that’s the right way to go,” Wolf said. “That’s not what the NFL is all about. That’s not what pro football is all about, and that’s not what we’re gonna be about.”

Wolf also pushed back against the notion the Patriots are executing a full-on youth movement.

“We still have a number of veteran players that we are expecting to contribute for us, and veteran backups that we expect to contribute for us,” he said. “It’s not just throwing darts at a dartboard.”

Now eight months on the job, Wolf has also taken a moment to look within. Asked for an area where he might improve as the head of an NFL front office, the 42-year-old offered he could be more assertive.

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“I would say just being a little bit more aggressive with the (front-office) staff. And when I say aggressive, it’s just making sure that they know exactly what the expectation is and exactly what it is that I want,” Wolf said. “And it’s not really what I want — it’s really what the organization needs from them, and just making sure that they are taking care of those tasks on a daily basis.”

“You know, I’m not a fear-based leader. But I could give myself a kick in the ass from time to time,” he said with a chuckle.

Wolf cited an example of young scouts informing top executives Matt Groh and Patrick Stewart that they had contacted a league source or an agent, and wanting Wolf to be apprised of the phone call.

“It’s really trying to get these guys to (know) it’s OK to call an agent and check on (a player), even if I didn’t tell them to. It’s OK to do stuff like that,” Wolf said. “Just do your job, and do everything you can to have the discipline to try to make the team better. I don’t have to authorize every little thing.”

Looking ahead, Wolf and the Patriots are expected to hold more than $110 million in cap room in 2025 — and perhaps more — assuming they roll over most of the $36 million they hold this year, second-most in the league. Wolf was direct about his plans for wielding that money in free agency next spring.

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“We’re going to try to sign elite players,” he said. “We came up short in a couple of cases this year, and we’ll try to take steps to make sure that that doesn’t happen next year.”

Ex-Jaguars wideout Calvin Ridley was among the Patriots’ misses, after he passed on a reported offer of $22 million per year to sign with Tennessee. Ridley was the lone No. 1 receiver available when free agency opened (and a borderline one at that). After admitting the team whiffed, Wolf chalked up some of the team’s failures to timing; noting the talent available didn’t match the talent the Patriots needed.

“The unfortunate thing about free agency this past year was for our offense, the deepest positions (of elite players) were running back and guard. … And we needed, you know, call it almost everything else,” Wolf said. “So hopefully the needs line up a little bit better for us this year, and we’ll improve the team.”

Wolf also acknowledged a No. 1 receiver may not be waiting for the Patriots come March. In recent years, the wideout market has mirrored the quarterback market, in that the best players sign record-breaking contract extensions before ever reaching free agency. Projected 2025 free agents, like Dallas’ CeeDee Lamb and the 49ers’ Brandon Aiyuk (a Patriots trade target who also turned them down last month), re-upped just last week.

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“I think there’s a chance,” Wolf said of signing a No. 1 receiver next year.  “I don’t know exactly who’s going to be available. There will be some players that are available, and if we feel like it’s somebody that’s a good fit, then we’ll try to (sign them). But there are fewer than there used to be at that position, that’s for sure.”

Until then, the Patriots are hoping their draft-and-develop plan can hasten the future Wolf and Mayo envision; one of a franchise back on top and contending again as it has for most of this century.

To that end, Wolf delivered one final message to fans waiting at home.

“I would preach patience and progress,” he said. “We’re going to continue to try to make progress on each side, all three sides of the ball, and our defense was pretty good last year. We expect that to continue. Our offense, we’re looking for some improvement and some stability in a lot of positions.

“And we have some exciting young players that I think fans will be excited to watch moving forward here for years to come.”