It’s all yucks, dueling compliments, and blissful cooperation for new Patriots coach Mike Vrabel and holdover personnel chief Eliot Wolf thus far. Their arranged marriage, designed to restore relevance and competence to Foxborough football, is still in the honeymoon phase.

That Kraft-manufactured matrimony is about to get its first true test Thursday with the start of the seven-round NFL Draft. We’ll see just how well Vrabel and his imported lieutenants (Ryan Cowden and John “Stretch” Streicher) and Wolf and aide de camp Alonzo Highsmith play together and pick players together, as well as where the power lies. This represents a sharper and stickier litmus test than tossing around money bags in free agency on established players, because the draft is the ultimate eye-of-the-beholder exercise that ultimately reveals who holds the personnel power. Just ask appointed Patriots Hall of Famer Bill Parcells.

Owners of the No. 4 overall pick, the Patriots aren’t in a clear-cut situation with their power structure or their draft choice. If the mock drafts are prescient, neither two-way sensation Travis Hunter nor spring-loaded pass rusher Abdul Carter will be available. So, whose football philosophy and talent evaluations will win out?

Read Christopher L. Gasper's full column at BostonGlobe.com/Sports.