The New England Patriots’ front office suffered a major loss this offseason when director of player personnel Nick Caserio accepted the Houston Texans’ vacant general manager position. Caserio had been with the Patriots since 2001, and spent the past 12 seasons as the right-hand man of head coach and de facto general manager Bill Belichick.
In true “next man up” fashion, however, New England turned to Dave Ziegler to help replace Caserio’s contributions. While no official promotion has been announced by the Patriots just yet, the expectation is that Ziegler’s role within the organization will look similar to the one Caserio held between the 2008 and 2019 seasons: heading the pro and college scouting departments, and being a prominent voice in Belichick’s ear.