Scott Pioli Tells New Commanders GM Adam Peters Origin Story

Former Patriots Executive Scott Pioli personally gave Commanders new General Manager Adam Peters his first job in the NFL. The now NFL Network analyst tells what he saw in Peters, and why he thinks he’ll succeed in Washington.

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[Applause] everything that we have heard about new Commander general manager Adam Peters has been pretty darn impressive and we are going to start the show with someone who knows him quite well in fact we’re going to start the show with the man who gave adam Peters his first job in the

NFL Scott peoli former NFL executive really one of the most accomplished Executives in the league in the last quarter Century now an analyst for the NFL Network joins us to start off this Friday Hoffman show Scott thank you for your time welcome to the show Greg thank

You for having me I really appreciate it always excited to talk about one of my former quote unquote young guys you can call him that still yeah I mean he’s still he’s still uh you know pretty young guy someone that of course Josh Harris is anticipating having around

Here in DC for quite a while I of course do want to take a trip in the way back machine but I’d be remiss if I didn’t just start with your reaction to the Washington commanders a team that was owned by Daniel Snider one year ago still now hiring the guy that everybody

Wanted with Josh Harris charge yeah well first of all you know personally I’m really excited for Adam um again I’ve known him for so long and I’m just happy for him and his family and and you know and I’m also quite honestly excited for Washington uh I have so much respect for

That franchise um even though I grew up a fan of a certain team north of you guys up in New York um I’ve always loved the franchise and always respected the franchise and I’m excited and I’m truly hopeful that this works out well for everybody yeah I mean it is certainly an

Exciting day one of the most exciting days uh outside of the sale um that we’ve had here in Washington in regards to the football team in a long time so take us back take us back to when you hire Adam Peters what stuck out about

Him as a young man and how quickly once you got him in the building there in New England did you realize like like this guy this guy might grow into something pretty significant one day in this league well going to the Wayback machine

As you like to call it I you know so I met Adam back in 2002 actually um you know I bill and I had left the Jets in in very early January of 2000 and we were in in New England and even though I was the vice president of player

Personnel the head of the Personnel Department I was still a firm believer that in that role The General manager/ president player you still need to scout you still need to be boots on the ground not only to evaluate talent and see Talent um but also to just to be amongst

Your Scouts so while I was out there you know Talent acquisition is players you’re thinking about coaches and you’re thinking about possible future employees so when I was out there in 20 2002 scouting I met Adam Adam was um you know he had done two years played at West

Valley junor College for a couple of years and then walked on at UCLA as a defensive end you know he he didn’t play caught a little action on special teams but um he had finished his his eligibility and was a graduate assistant coach and you know I got to meet him you

Always as a as a visitor you always get to meet graduate assistants um they’re usually the ones that have to show you around give you what you need and and kind of take care of you so I met Adam and there were a number of things I

Liked about him um you know part of when you meet folks like that you get to know them you talk to them you also you’re evaluating them right and that was something that I always did and he stayed in touch with me we stayed in

Touch he only did one year as a graduate assistant at UCLA and you know I I’m a big believer in in hiring young people and developing when you see certain elements about them um and you think that they can be developed and grow into something you hire them and and I’ll say

This about Adam you know when I met him here’s a guy again played High School football then went to a junior college because he wanted to play division one football and he doesn’t get a scholarship at UCLA and he walks on and plays there for two years and here’s

What I’ll say about walk on the division one schools those guys go through it man it it is a it is tough sledding and if you don’t love football it’s a full-time job right and if you don’t love football you’re probably not going to last you know he wasn’t getting scholarship so he

Wasn’t getting paid to do it he was lining up every single day and paying to do it that told me a little bit of something you know a little bit of something about him and next year when I had a position open uh I I hire I

Offered him a job and hired him wow that’s a that’s a great story by the way speaking of uh UCLA guys uh my my buddy Logan Paulson who I do a podcast with and we’ll join us later in the show says hello Scott I love Logan he’s he’s the

Best I’m lucky enough to to get to work with him multiple times per week I just now imag ining like Adam Peters and Logan Paulson they they wouldn’t have crossed in UCLA timeline wise but if they had them just banging helmets uh instead Adam uh was one of the people

That helped bring Logan to San Francisco uh when when Logan went uh when Kyle went so um the connections in the league are crazy I was with Logan in Atlanta and love Logan please tell him hello later on you know he and Adam have different styles I’ll say that you’ve

Seen pictures of Adam Adam dresses a little bit different than Logan you know I think they’re you know one guy going to to high countries get his gear and and Adam’s getting his suits tailored for sure yeah without question uh probably similar football Styles very different personal

Styles um when you think as actually one of the questions football style that I wanted to ask you about Adam Peters uh Scott peoli is with us of course now an NFL network analyst one of the most accomplished front office guys in the last 25 years in the NFL up in New

England uh you can catch him on NFL Network game day mornings airing Saturday at noon and Sunday at 9:00 a.m. this playoff weekend but when you think about like a football philosophy what would you say Adam’s football philosophy is and how can he apply that as a lead guy and shape this Commander’s

Organization which is a pretty darn Blank Slate at the moment yeah here’s what I would hope it is you know Adam he was very impressional he came to us at like 22 23 years old so one thing that we had in place in New England was a

Process and a system it was a process of evaluation and acquiring talent that fit what the culture was and the culture is head coach driven it doesn’t matter who’s the boss whether it’s the general manager or the head coach the bottom line is the team becomes the head

Coach’s team so one thing that Adam saw firsthand during his initial years in the league is when I let the Personnel Department we went out and found players that fit what Bill belich wanted wanted and Bill wanted big smart strong tough football players that were disciplined

And did things a certain way and if they didn’t fit to head coach his personality they probably weren’t going to last and or they probably weren’t going to develop so here’s what I know about Adam Adam understands that and he understands that e regardless his role is to find

And acquire Talent draft it sign it get it under contract and help the head coach develop them and I think Adam’s philosophy is he he knows what wins in this league he’s seen it in New England he’s seen it in San Francisco he knows what wins in the league and he also

Knows that the most important part of a general manager and someone who acquires Talent is to Humble themselves and make sure that they’re finding the talent that fits the head coach’s needs and what the scheme’s needs are and obviously uh his first task here will be

Helping to hire a head coach um you’d have to imagine like a Ben Johnson a Bobby slowick two guys that are are similarly molded to what he’s been working with in San Francisco and Kyle shanan would be on his radar um those two names that make sense to you and is

There anyone else that that would really pop for you there’s other names I I mean those names and other names but I I I think you know one of the most important things that you can’t get caught up in names and recency bias of of success because you have to bring someone who

Again that you believe in their offensive philosophy their defensive philosophy but also make sure that they can lead a team just because someone’s a good play caller doesn’t mean that they’re going to be a head coach we’ve seen that time and time again now there are obviously some people that are good

Play callers that become head coaches there’ve been some very good defensive coaches that have become head coaches so I think the most important thing is making sure that they have aligned values on what they believe their locker room should look like what their locker room needs to be

Like and that again they have to be aligned in their football Vision their character vision and what they believe is going to work and um you don’t necessarily have to be best friends but you have to be able to know how to get along so the relationship becomes really

Important because here’s the truth you talk about these quote unquote you know relationships that become like marriages the truth is the The General manager and the head coach they end up spending more time together than they do with their actual spouses so these relationships and then there’s the the highs of the

Winning and the lows of the losing were you know the personalities um and and and the people are put under a lot of strain and stress and they have to make sure that they can maintain their loyalty to one another while pursuing the vision Scott pii with

Us former NFL executive now current NFL network analyst um great perspective and and one more question for you Scott on the way out here the commanders have this number two pick um and it is obviously a massive piece number two pick always is this is a loaded draft

It’s a loaded quarterback draft so knowing Adam like you do in the team building philosophy and frankly being someone who helped him shape his team building philosophy as as the guy who gave him his first job in the league like any any initial thoughts on what

Adam is going to be looking at um whether it’s specific of like oh yeah Drake May or Caleb Williams or one of these guys that fits what Adam loves or kind of more on a philosophical level where he would probably be inclined to lean with that number two pick once he

Really gets to work on it yeah I I think it’s too early quite honestly Craig and hopefully what he did learn was part of our philosophy that here’s what everyone knows this football team meaning the Washington commanders needs a lot of players it’s not all going to get done

In one year it’s not all going to get done in two years what you’re going to need to do is maximize your player acquisition model whether that’s free agency whether that’s trade whether the waivers and of course the draft one of the things that we were big big

Believers on in that Adam saw fir hand was collecting a bunch of draft currency because here’s the reality you’re going to miss we’re all going to miss and you more often miss than you hit even the greatest of GMS so the more opportunities the more swings that you

Have at the plate the more chance you have to be correct now there may be someone you know at where they’re picking that they feel they can’t move past but if they here’s the other thing I tried to teach Adam and hopefully you know is that there’s the player

Evaluation part of the process then there’s the draft strategy part of the process and the draft strategy part comes in as we get closer to the draft make sure you get your board right make sure you get the evaluations right but when it comes down to the strategy know

Where you can move to in order to collect again draft collateral draft currency and move back and get as many P picks as you can if there’s someone that you think you can move back to get so if there’s a quarterback they fall in love with that’s that’s at the spot but they

Think they can get to five think of all the draft picks they may be able to get by moving back one two or three spots so again to to get too excited of who the right guy is who they’re going to pick I think you’ll have to get in assess his

Roster and and start working on the evaluation part of his own team the draft board free agency and then start thinking about the strategy no doubt it’s exciting day but a lot of work to do ahead is it awesome this is like a great it’s so funny that

It’s sad when some of these chapters end for folks it really is because I’ve been fired too but then every time someone new gets hired there’s like this rebirth and hope hopefulness and optimism so I’m really really happy for the commanders in Washington the city Washington DC for

Sure and it is a a hopefully Phoenix Rising From the Ashes here U even more so than other places the dramatic nature of the rise uh just because it’s been pretty low here Scott uh in terms of the football last I remember the old Washington teams growing up as a giant

Fan I had to put up with Larry Brown and Chris hamburger and all those guys that used to beat down my New York Giants so so I get it hey here in DC we’re just happy wink Martell’s gone in New York that dude is even though they haven’t

Won a bunch of games that dude has terrorized every Washington team since he’s been in New York it’s been awful if I see another Giants Blitz I think I might you know I don’t even know uh anyway Scott peoli uh on NFL Network’s game day morning Saturday at noon Sunday

At 900 a.m. and uh hopefully back on this show soon Scott that was phenomenal thank you so much for your time on a busy day and uh we’ll catch up with you down the road no thanks for having me and really I hope you guys enjoy it and

I hope he does a great job for you all thanks so much Scott yeah that is Scott Pei with us here on the Hoffman show what a start on the day the commanders hire their new GM and really in Earnest start the football portion of the Josh Harris

Era what’s up kiddos it’s your boy Clinton gates from ESPN it’s the Hof show on the team 8 tell your mama I said what’s up