Ex-NFL Executive Explains Story Depicting Patriots Offseason Work Ethic

Longtime NFL executive Scott Pioli previously shared an example of what he believes depicted the organization’s “culture” prior to the 2020 East-West Shrine game.

Pioli, now a CBS Sports analyst, noted in a Jan. 14 tweet that it was 7 a.m. and how there were four people holding interviews with college players while eating breakfast. Of the 32 NFL teams, however, only one was represented as all four holding interviews were Patriots scouts.

An executive in New England for nine seasons, Pioli explained why he thought that situation was so important to share during an appearance on Tom E. Curran’s “Patriots Talk Podcast” this week.

“I put it out there because to me this showed one thing will never change with the New England Patriots is how hard they work,” Pioli told Curran. “(Director of College Scouting) Monti Ossenfort, (College Scouting Coordinator) Brian Smith — two guys that were there 100 years ago when I was there — and two other younger scouts, they were the only ones there. I bring this up because so many people are talking about how difficult it is right now, they need more time, they’re not getting time to spend with players.

“The reality is you’ve had a full year of tape to watch these players. You’ve had all of the All-Star games. You’ve had the Senior Bowl, the NFLPA Bowl, the Small School Bowl, the East-West Shrine Game, you’ve got all of these days to interview players, spend time with them, your scouts, your coaches if teams had been doing their work they would have gotten this stuff done.”

In this specific example, however, it was just the Patriots.

And it’s one reason why Pioli seems so confident the organization and their “very good system in place” will have a leg up on the rest of the league for the 2020 NFL Draft.

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