The Patriots’ success under head coach Bill Belichick has made the team’s director of player personnel a clear stepping stone to a General Manager job with another club.
The last two men to hold the position, Nick Caserio and Dave Ziegler, are now the G.M. of the Texans and Raiders, respectively.
So when Ziegler left the franchise in January, it didn’t take long for New England to name Mike Groh its latest director of player personnel in mid-February.
Groh met with the Patriots press corps for the first time on Friday and said it was an honor to move into his new role. And it’s been a real collaborative process to get him up to speed on certain things.
“Yeah, it’s been great. Obviously, coach [Belichick] is the General Manager, coach is in charge. He’s been doing this a long time,” Groh said, via Dakota Randall of NESN. ‘The more I can learn from coach Belichick and a lot of the other guys around here — I’m gonna do that.
“It’s great working with coach — absolutely love it. With all the input that he asks from us, and just getting his ideas, and the information that he has on these players through his different relationships across the country at different schools. It’s been fantastic. I definitely take it as a huge honor, given the people who I’m working with and the people who have sat in this chair before me, to Scott Pioli, to Nick Caserio, to Dave Ziegler — think a lot of all those people. And, really, to be in this chair is an honor, knowing that they’ve sat in it. And then, really, to be sitting here with all the people who I’m so fortunate to work along with.”
Groh had spent the last 11 seasons with the Patriots, most recently as the team’s college scouting director. His father, Al, was a longtime colleague of Belichick and was the Jets head coach for one season after Belichick abruptly resigned from the position. Groh’s brother, Mike, was recently named the Giants receivers coach under new head coach Brian…