Deatrich Wise Jr. “Mac Jones’ Energy has been high!”

Patriots Defensive End Deatrich Wise Jr. joined Michael Felger and Jim Murray on Tuesday's Felger and Massarotti program live at Patriots Training Camp in Foxboro.

Felger: Okay. We're going to break from this real quick. We have a player available to us from the field as Felger and Mazz come to you from Patriots training camp. It's Patriots defender Deatrich Wise Jr. joining us now. Deatrich, how are you?

Deatrich Wise Jr: I'm doing well. How are you doing?

Felger: Excellent. Excellent. How's camp going for you so far?

Deatrich Wise Jr: I'm pretty good. Pretty good.

Felger: How do you feel about training camp? Do you like it?

Deatrich Wise Jr: Yeah, I love it.

Felger: Oh, come on. How could you like training camp?

Deatrich Wise Jr: No, I love training camp. Everybody comes together. Oh, 18 hours a day. Just work, you know, with your friends and everything and just refine your skills. It's the best place to be.

Felger: 18 hours a Day?

Deatrich Wise Jr: I'm over it.

Felger: Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So, I want to say, because, you know, you know, and I'm sure that's why I want to ask you, you must be sick if you talk to former players or hear former players in the media say these guys have it so easy, I don't even know what I'm looking at here. We had two a day in pads. We had to stay at the college dorm. These guys don't know what. Are you almost sick of hearing that now about how easy you have it.

Deatrich Wise Jr: Man, Now? Oh, all I hear is other teams having it easier than how we have. So, I'm always hearing guys come from other teams like, Yeah, how about 2:00 for like, why I'm out early? Yeah, we're here to five.

Felger: You still think from what you hear from talking to different players that the Patriots is a harder camp than most other teams?

Deatrich Wise Jr: Yeah, I would say it's harder but also well what we do here at training camp definitely shows on the field. So, all of the other teams have easier camps. But I believe what we do on the field definitely shows and it definitely has shown in the past.

Jim Murray: Deatrich It's been a good camp for the defense. So is there a strong sense of confidence on that side of the ball going into this first preseason game or are you in that the guys on that side of the ball saying, not so fast, we still got work to do because the offense might be struggling a bit. So yeah.

Deatrich Wise Jr: We think everything we must one day at a time. Even though we did well last year, we kind of have a short-term memory and everything that we do is just focus on getting better today. You know, we take everything prematurely. I live in the present, you know, so today's goal was just to get better and beat ourselves down yesterday. And then tomorrow’s goal would be the same thing, just refining our skills, building chemistry, our technician fundamentals. So every time we step on the field, all we hearing is good job, good job, good job.

Felger: Well, I understand it's day to day, but I must imagine you start doing some prep for the season. And so my question then, I know you don't you can't give away state secrets. I'm not asking that. But is there some Look ahead. Do are you looking at Jalen hurts film? Are you looking at Aaron Rodgers tape? Are you looking at you know you're starting to look ahead to your schedule and prepare for it?

Deatrich Wise Jr: You know we are we have been preparing for the season but we we prepare for the season. How kind of like just we are doing in the past generically these our teams run these plays we can't go over like our past opponents our current opponents. So today we talked about what the Houston Texans have done and how a similar team we will face in the future.

Felger: Do you consider that list of quarterbacks you're playing this year? I mean, I'm sure you're aware of it. It's Aaron Rodgers twice, it's Josh Allen twice. It's Patrick Mahomes. It's Jalen Hurts. It's like just about every elite quarterback in the league has landed on your schedule. Do you think of that?

Deatrich Wise Jr: You know, it's a great opportunity to go up against great talent, not only playing against their quarterbacks, but their offensive line, their running backs, their receivers. So I'm looking forward to a great matches every day, every game to have there.

Jim Murray: I mean, there's new additions, rookies that are coming in on your side of the ball. Has anyone that you've played with so far like made your eyes pop, say, okay, we got a player here.

Deatrich Wise Jr: Yeah, we have some really good players are really good rookies that came in I think with this is a top tier rookie class in my opinion from Pop. He's been doing very well. Keon been doing really good, Gonzales has been doing great. O-line rookies have stepped up all of them. So honestly, since the first day we got here, they've been coming in super early, they've been staying late. They almost as if like they're training as if like they're vets almost. This is, this is really exciting to see. So I'm excited to see how these guys transfer over to the game for you.

Felger: Deatrich, I'm sure you're preparing as if you're going to play on Thursday night. Do you want to play on Thursday? Do you like playing pre-season games? Do you want to play pre-season games? Or if it were up to you would just set them out?

Deatrich Wise Jr: I actually love playing preseason games because we knock the rust off. Helped me get acclimated to to the game speed and stuff, but unfortunately, I won't be playing.

Felger: Okay. So. But did do you prefer it feels like they put more and more into these joint practices? Do you think those are more valuable? Because for the fans, I got to tell you, it sucks, you know, because the fans don't get to see the joints. They don't you know, it's not really a Super Bowl product for the fans. They have to watch the preseason games. And it feels like the coaches play all you guys in those joint practices. Then we get to the games and we don't see you. And it's like, Wow, that's a screw job for the fans anyway. But you know, as a player, do you prefer it that way?

Deatrich Wise Jr: Well, last year there was a ton of fans there for a joint practice, so they got a really good show. But it all depends on the professionalism of the team. If the team is coming in strictly just to play football, who's trying to get better shopping and shopping their skills, then that's when it's actually beneficial. But when teams come in and they're hotheads and they're looking just to do one thing, and as end as end is in the tent, then that's when it kind of gets sloppy and you can't not want to do it. But I think defenses are really good because you know, somebody else for a chance. And when everybody is professional, everything is going smoothly.

Felger: Okay. Final question. I saw out there today, Mac Jones, I don't know if you were on the field for this play or not, but there's a touchdown in the back of the end zone to make a sticky, really nice one handed catch and they sort of body pumped and everything into this energy I saw from Mac Jones. Is that been obvious to you, this training camp?

Deatrich Wise Jr: Most definitely. The team has been clicking. Definitely Mac and his receivers and his targets. They have been coming together slowly and slowly and it's good to see when they connect on the field. So his energy has been high since OTAs.

Felger: Okay, D.J., thanks so much for taking the time. I appreciate it. Good luck to you this season.

Deatrich Wise Jr: Thank you very.

Felger: Much. Okay. D.J. Weiss join us here from Patriots Training camp, which is where fellow grandmas are after being shamed for not coming down here. Not only are we down here, not only did I witness practice, I actually went down to the tent with the writers. They didn't tase you like I used to. They want to tell you a lot of dirty looks. Yeah. So I actually went down. I watched practice from the tent for a little bit. I had Trent Brown with two plus plays, Tyquan Thornton with three minus plays. I watch practice. I interviewed a player. What else do you want now? Okay, This is like they said, What are we doing? I know. Bizarre right now. Believe me, we'll get back to what we do in it, but we just. Okay, we did it. What's happened to the show? I don't know. I don't know. We witnessed practice. We reported actual facts. We interviewed a player. I don't like it. I feel like it was.

Listen to Felger and Mazz from 2-6 every Monday-Friday on 98.5 The Sports Hub, with hosts Mike Felger, Tony “Mazz” Massarotti, and Jim Murray “Big Jim”. You can listen live in the Sports Hub App and subscribe to their podcasts here. Follow @FelgerAndMazz on Twitter to keep up with the show!

The Patriots are just under two weeks into training camp as they hit their second off day of the summer, and it's been a very eventful two weeks. After a slow start early in camp the offense picked up, with the defense hitting back to wrap up the final full practice of the second block on Thursday.

While there's still a long way to go, 18 hours of practice time have taught us a lot. Leaders are emerging in positional battles across the roster - some as expected, and others with potential breakout players.

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So as the Patriots hit an off day and transition between the beginning stage of camp and game preparation, let's take stock of where the roster is at. It's time for our first roster projection of the summer.

For the purpose of this projection, we're mainly working off what we've seen so far. There is some room to project ahead - and those projections will be noted - but for the most part this is what the roster would look like if the Patriots had to make their cutdowns now. We'll be back with an updated projection after each preseason game as things change.

Note: Players are listed alphabetically by position. Rookies are in italics.

--Mac Jones
--Bailey Zappe

Not much of a surprise here. The Patriots will stick with the same quarterback duo they had for most of last season. As for the new 'extra QB' roster rule, Malik Cunningham has been working exclusively with the wide receivers so far this summer, so it doesn't look like the team plans on doing anything 'out-of-the-box' in that regard.

--Kevin Harris
--Ty Montgomery
--Rhamondre Stevenson
--Pierre Strong

The construction of the Patriots' running back room has been a big topic early in camp. With Stevenson limited for the majority of the practices, and Montgomery hurt since Day 2, the lack of depth has been easily apparent.

Right now, we have Montgomery on. If he can get healthy, it certainly seems like the Patriots have a plan for him based on what we saw in the spring and the first two days of training camp. If he can't get healthy enough to make the team, it still feels like they'll end up carrying four backs with that spot going to a free agent.

--Kendrick Bourne
--Demario Douglas
--DeVante Parker
--JuJu Smith-Schuster
--Tyquan Thornton

Right now, the biggest question at the wide receiver position is the battle between Douglas and fellow rookie Kayshon Boutte for the final receiver spot. Is there a scenario where both could end up making the team? Yes. But for now there's too much of a roster crunch elsewhere to justify it.

Douglas gets the nod over Boutte for two reasons. One, he's done more. Boutte had what he admitted was a slow start to camp before coming on strong late this week, while Douglas has been in the spotlight since Day 1. The other factor? Fit. And that ties into another receiver's slow start to camp.

As the 50th overall pick just a season ago, Thornton's roster spot shouldn't be in jeopardy. However, his role within the offense could come up for grabs if he can't get back on the field (he was limited Wednesday and Thursday) and improve on his slow start to camp. Initially, it seems like Thornton would have plenty of leeway because he would bring a speed element the offense wouldn't otherwise have. If Douglas can provide the speed and play at an NFL level, he could edge out Thornton for snaps. We're still a long way from that happening, but things have gotten to the point where it's at least worth discussing.

--Mike Gesicki
--Hunter Henry

So far, Henry has been the best skill player for the Patriots in camp. After a slow start, Gesicki has started to come along as well.

That leaves the third tight end spot up for grabs. It seems like veteran Matt Sokol is the favorite right now, but he's a player the Patriots should be able to get to the practice squad and elevate on gamedays for the first few weeks until another roster spot opens up.

--C David Andrews
--C/G Jake Andrews
--T Trent Brown
--G Atonio Mafi
--T Conor McDermott
--G/T Mike Onwenu
--T Riley Reiff
--T Sidy Sow
--G Cole Strange

In recent  years the Patriots have gone thinner on the offensive line, keeping only seven or eight players and then taking advantage of the practice squad elevation rules to add depth when and where needed. However, with three linemen drafted in the top 150 this year, it's harder to justify doing that. In order to keep those players on their rookie deals, expect the team to roster more lineman than usual.

At the same time, expect them to keep some of their more trusted veterans around on the practice squad. That group includes players like James Ferentz, Bill Murray and Kody Russey, who have seen plenty of time in camp with injuries ahead of them on the depth chart.

Also, we're not including tackle Calvin Anderson on this roster projection. Anderson is currently on the Non-Football Illness list, and Bill Belichick sounded legitimately unsure about a timeline for him when asked earlier this week. If Anderson opens the season on the NFI list, he'd have to miss the first six weeks before the team could activate him.

--Christian Barmore
--Carl Davis
--Davon Godchaux
--Lawrence Guy
--Keion White
--Deatrich Wise

Our post-spring roster projection has Guy not making the team due to his holdout. However, he's since reported to training camp and been a full participant. It seems like the team is planning on having him on the roster in 2023.

The tough cut here is Daniel Ekuale. Ekuale has been with the Patriots the last two years, and provides good depth behind Christian Barmore as a pass-rushing defensive tackle. That being said, he's a player the team could likely get through waivers and then put back on the roster once the initial 53 is set and players have been placed on IR.

--Ja'Whaun Bentley
--Chris Board
--Anfernee Jennings
--Matthew Judon
--Marte Mapu
--Jahlani Tavai
--Josh Uche
--Mack Wilson

Yes, this is a lot of linebackers. But the Patriots have a lot of talent at linebacker, and all of these players bring a different element to the field. On a Patriots' defense that figures to be rotation-heavy, keeping this many players makes sense. Some players will handle other roles too, like Mapu contributing at safety or Jennings adding depth as a hybrid defensive lineman.

Part of the reason this group stays so deep is that everybody has showed up. Wilson and Jennings are the two players closest to the bubble, but Wilson has been a constant play-maker in camp - especially against coverage - and Jennings has regularly repped with the top unit - as he did last year. Based on what we've seen so far, it's hard to justify keeping either player off the roster.

The number of players here is also slightly inflated by the presence of Board. Primarily a special teams player, Board has repped enough with the defense so far this summer to land in this category, rather than with the rest of the specialists.

--Myles Bryant
--Christian Gonzalez
--Jack Jones
--Jonathan Jones
--Marcus Jones

The Patriots' top cornerback group is pretty locked in, but this position also features one of the toughest cuts on the roster right now. Rookie seventh-round pick Isaiah Bolden has come on strong since the pads came on at practice, to the point where he was getting time with the top defense during live reps on Thursday.

At the same time, it's early and Bolden's evaluation is based on just a couple of practices. Right now he's just off the roster, and a candidate to be re-added once initial IR placements are made. He could also find himself more in lock for a roster spot if Jack Jones can't start the season due to his legal issues.

--Joshuah Bledsoe
--Kyle Dugger
--Jalen Mills
--Jabrill Peppers
--Adrian Phillips

Bledsoe's inclusion might surprise some people, but the coaching staff is high on his abilities. He also has had a good start to camp. The rest of this group is chalk, building what is probably the best single position room on the Patriots' roster.

--K Chad Ryland
--P Bryce Baringer
--LS Joe Cardona

The Patriots' rookie specialists have done nothing but impress so far in training camp. They seem to be edging out their veteran counterparts for their jobs.

--Jourdan Heilig
--DaMarcus Mitchell
--Brenden Schooler
--Matthew Slater

Heilig has been working extensively with Slater in practice, a strong sign he's in line for a roster spot. He'd extend the team's UDFA Week 1 streak to 20 years. There are other players here just off the roster, including Raleigh Webb and Calvin Munson. Cody Davis should also be in consideration if he comes off PUP after suffering a serious knee injury last year.

Last 3 on:

--Ty Montgomery
--Anfernee Jennings
--DaMarcus Mitchell

Last 3 off:

--Daniel Ekuale
--Isaiah Bolden
--Kayson Boutte

Alex Barth is a writer and digital producer for 985TheSportsHub.com. Any opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of 98.5 The Sports Hub, Beasley Media Group, or any subsidiaries. Thoughts? Comments? Questions? Looking for a podcast guest? Let him know on Twitter @RealAlexBarth or via email at abarth@985TheSportsHub.com.