When Scott Pioli was riding shotgun with Bill Belichick from 2000-08, it was readily accepted that assembling the Patriots roster was a collaborative effort.
Belichick had the final say, but Pioli was well-recognized as the point man on personnel. The overarching philosophy for building a team – what kind of players Belichick was seeking in terms of build, skill and character – was Belichick’s. Pioli adhered to it and he was included – or singled out – when media threw bouquets at the team.
While the Patriots were winning three Super Bowls in four seasons, Pioli was twice named Executive of the Year by Sports Illustrated and once by Pro Football Weekly. When the decade ended, Pioli was named the “NFL Personnel Man of the Decade” by ESPN.com and, the decade’s “NFL’s Top Personnel Executive” by Sports Illustrated. SI also declared Pioli the top executive in pro sports from 2000-09.
But when Pioli left the Patriots after the 2008 season to become GM of the Chiefs, the outside perception became that Bill Belichick is Sheriff, Deputy and chief bottle washer for the Patriots when it comes to personnel.
As readily as Belichick credits Pioli’s successor – Nick Caserio – with being the point man on free agents, the draft, contract negotiations, national recognition hasn’t come.
This week, Rotoworld’s Patrick Daugherty ranked the NFL’s GMs. It’s a fun read because we all love lists and Daugherty is a very good writer.
But it was interesting to me that Daugherty’s ranking of Belichick as the game’s top GM wasn’t accompanied by any mention of Caserio. It’s certainly not an oversight that only Daugherty is guilty of.
New England Patriots
“Nick doesn’t get enough credit for what happens here,” said Patriots Vice Chairman Jonathan Kraft in December. “He has coached, scouted, done the job of the guy running the front office, looking at the salary cap. For a guy his age, he really has a lot of NFL experience under his belt and he and Bill have a great relationship."
The 2014 season was an outstanding one for Caserio and the personnel department.
During the season, the Patriots added three discards from other teams – outside linebacker Akeem Ayers, defensive tackle Alan Branch and linebacker Jonathan Casillas – that had impacts on the team’s success. That’s Caserio and the pro personnel staff at work. Before the season, Caserio helped orchestrate the trade with Tampa that sent Logan Mankins south in exchange for Tim Wright. They had a solid draft, grabbing center Bryan Stork in the fourth round and also grabbing undrafted rookie Malcolm Butler after the draft. He made some big plays.
Moves involving big names like Mankins, Darrelle Revis or Wes Welker are ones that generate the scrutiny and conversation. Belichick is the face on the dartboard when people are pissed. His is the head on which the crown is fixed.
But deals for presumed bit players like Brandon LaFell, LeGarrette Blount or Jonas Gray wind up having considerable impact.
Caserio is the point man in free agency, he’s the point man at the draft and he’s the one who does most of the trades. There’s nothing that’s done without Belichick’s knowledge or approval, obviously, but Caserio has the latitude to act and Belichick’s tacit approval to be decisive.
It’s why, in December, the Patriots signed Caserio through the 2020 season.
"I think Nick does a great job for us," Belichick said. "He probably does more than any other person in his position in the league in terms of his amount of responsibility, the number of different things he does on the coaching and the scouting level."
In Foxboro, nothing is frowned upon more than someone who’s a credit-seeking, self-promoter.
That’s not a worry with Caserio. He does his thing and stays in the background. When he speaks with the media, everything from his word choice to his cadence echoes Belichick.
That being the case, the national media isn’t inclined to mine the story of who Nick Caserio is and what he does. Easier to let Belichick be the non-playing face of the franchise and be done with it. And the Patriots are fine with that. It’s not like they make it obvious who does what in the organization and they certainly aren’t going to share intimate details of how deals go down.
But it is interesting to see just how overlooked the lead personnel guy for the Super Bowl champions is, especially when his predecessor was able to get his due.
I touched base with Daugherty. Not because I wanted to correct him, but because I wanted to figure out why he perceived the Patriots’ personnel chores were wholly run by Belichick. In many instances, the national media only really knows what the local media tells it in terms of how a team operates.
“I guess the main reason (for not mentioning Caserio) was just that I was so focused on the ‘top’ guy in each personnel food chain, that I basically wasn't mentioning the lieutenants unless it was someone really obvious like (Jeff) Fisher and (GM Les Snead in St. Louis),” said Daugherty in a direct message via Twitter. “I think now it's clear Nick C. should have been an obvious one to me, though.”