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.
Transcript:
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.

FOXBOROUGH, MA – JUNE 16: Christian Barmore #51 and Deatrich Wise Jr. #91 of the New England Patriots compete in a drill during mandatory minicamp at the New England Patriots practice facility on June 16, 2021 in Foxborough, Massachusetts. (Photo by Kathryn Riley/Getty Images)
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.