Patriots' captain Deatrich Wise backs Bill Belichick, Mac Jones
FOXBORO -- Deatrich Wise Jr. is a Patriots' team captain for a reason. With New England sitting at a disappointing 2-8 as the team hits its bye week, Wise is encouraging everyone in the locker room to forget about football for a few days.
Now in his seventh NFL season, Wise uses the bye week each year to recharge and regroup. He's always looking for ways to help improve the team and himself, and that will be the focus when the Patriots practice this week and next, leading up to their Week 12 tilt with the New York Giants.
But when players get this upcoming weekend off, Wise wants them to make the most of that time and refresh their minds for the final seven games of the season.
"I always tell guys just to get away for a little bit," Wise told reporters inside the Patriots locker room on Tuesday. "We know how intense mentally and physically that this NFL season can be on the body, mind and the emotional state. Use this time to get away and get away from football, Think about your self health."
His advice? Go visit relatives. Take a long walk. Check out a movie. Anything to get their minds off football for a little bit.
Whatever they do, Wise wants them to block out all the outside noise. That noise has been getting extremely loud, as it tneds to get when a team is 2-8. It has been getting especially loud surrounding the future of head coach Bill Belichick.
Wise doesn't want to hear any of it.
"I've always told everyone that Bill is a great, great coach. This is a tough season and we have a bad record, but we don't have a bad team," he said.
When pressed on why he doesn't think the Patriots have a bad team, Wise was prepared.
"We've done a lot of great things. On defense, we continue to have great success," he said. "There have been a lot of teams that score a high number of points and we're consistently stopping them from their yearly average. A lot of good teams come our way and, besides maybe two games, they leave with their season-low.
"We're doing some great things on offense; the line is moving guys out of the way and holes are being created," he continued. "Rhamondre is doing a fantastic job. There are a lot of connections and glimpses of positive plays throughout the game on both sides of the ball, and on special teams."
Of the team's eight losses, five have been by a touchdown or less. Wise said that the key to coming out of the bye strong will be correcting all the mistakes the team keeps making that bite them in the backside on game day.
"There are a lot of things we're doing well. We just need to continue to do those well. The things we're not doing well and hurting ourselves on, just correct that," he said.
He also had the back of another Patriots' team captain that has been under fire lately: Quarterback Mac Jones.
"We still believe in him. There are a lot of tough things going on but he's doing a great job handling the criticism that is coming his way," Wise said of Jones. "We, as a team, support him and are behind him. We'll continue to be behind him until the season is done."
