The Patriots have filled a big vacancy in their front office.
More than two months after previous pro scouting director Patrick Stewart left the organization, the New England Patriots have hired a replacement. A.J. Highsmith was brought aboard within days of being let go by his previous team, the Tennessee Titans.
Let’s analyze what the move means from a New England perspective.
Nepotism at work?
In case Highsmith’s name sounded familiar, it’s because it is. His father, Alonzo Highsmith, joined the Patriots last offseason to serve as a senior personnel executive. What exactly the elder Highsmith’s job title entails is not known, but he is playing an important role within the New England front office.
It is therefore not hard to put two and two together: Alonzo likely had an active hand in the Patriots hiring A.J. as pro scouting director. That does not mean the latter is ripe for the “nepo baby” label, though.
The younger Highsmith, after all, is bringing an extensive résumé to New England — one he built without any obvious help from his father. Whereas Alonzo worked in Green Bay, Cleveland, Seattle and at the University of Miami before joining the Patriots, A.J.’s career in scouting took him from San Francisco to Buffalo and Tennessee.
Over the course of his 11-year career, he garnered experience both in pro and college scouting and steadily worked his way up the ladder. He most recently worked as the Titans’ scouting director, but was let go after this year’s draft as part of a general restructure under new general manager Mike Borgonzi.
His father either directly or indirectly helping Highsmith find a new job quickly would not be a surprise. However, that does not mean he is not qualified for the position.
New perspectives
The Patriots’ previous staff hires this offseason mostly followed a familiar theme: they were, in one way or another, connected to new head coach Mike Vrabel. Look no further than Ryan Cowden and John “Stretch” Streicher, who joined the team as vice president of player personnel and vice president of football operations and strategy, respectively, after previously spending time with Vrabel in Tennessee.
Highsmith also has a Titans background, but he did not overlap with Vrabel, Cowden or Streicher in the Music City. In fact, outside of his family ties, he has no noticeable previous connections with the New England front office.
This means that Highsmith could bring a new perspective of pro player evaluation to the organization and his new role; he learned the craft in his previous stops under general managers such as John Lynch, Brandon Beane and Ran Carthon. This is something Patriots executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf might have been drawn to.
As previously mentioned, Wolf criticized his team’s free agency research in 2024, claiming that “some of the information that we got on some of the players wasn’t as thorough as it needed to be.” The hope will be that adding Highsmith helps address that particular issue.
Executive logjam
The Patriots eventually hiring a new director of pro personnel was always a real possibility following Patrick Stewart’s departure, especially with Mike Vrabel now having an active hand in the team’s football operations. However, doing so adds yet another person to a room that is already quite crowded.
Disregarding the college process, which is overseen by director of college scouting Camren Williams, the Patriots have several executives involved in pro scouting. Eliot Wolf and, to some degree, Mike Vrabel sit at the very top of the organizational pyramid, with the aforementioned Ryan Cowden also prominently involved.
In addition to those three, the Patriots now also employ both A.J. and Alonzo Highsmith as well as director of player personnel Matt Groh, assistant director of pro personnel Sam Fioroni, and director of football strategy Marshall Oium, who himself comes from a pro scouting background. They also have several pro scouts on their pay roll below the executive level.
Time will tell what that department will look like moving forward.
More moves to follow
Speaking of the future, the Patriots are likely not done making personnel department moves. Not only will they replace area scout Josh Hinch, they also might initiate a wider restructure with Mike Vrabel and Ryan Cowden in the fold.
Three names to keep an eye on are Mical Johnson, Corey Cooper and Mike Derice. The former two were recently let go from the Titans and have experience with both Vrabel and Cowden; the latter was a national scout for the New York Giants who overlapped with Cowden.
Bringing Highsmith aboard might just be one of the first dominoes to fall.