Deatrich Wise models his game after Jason Taylor, Julius Peppers

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Just a few hours after Bill Belichick had gushed about NFL Hall of Famer Jason Taylor, rookie Deatrich Wise Jr. said Taylor is one of a handful of players he’s long admired and - in part - modeled his game after.

“Watching Jason Taylor, Julius Peppers and Jason Pierre Paul, and then I started watching a little bit of Calais {Campell},” Wise said, then referencing the field behind him. “It’s kind of cool to see him out there now (Campbell is now with Jacksonville). I emulate my game mostly on Julius Peppers, in the sense of how long he is, the moves he uses and stuff like that.”

Asked if he knew his new Head Coach had long been a fan of Taylor in particular, Wise said no but “that’s awesome.” The defensive lineman, who seems to be all arms and legs but has shown an ability to hold his ground and get after the passer here during the first couple weeks of training camp, remains a student of his favorite players.

“Go on YouTube and type in their name and watch their highlights of things they do,” said Wise. “When they were playing when I was young, I’d watch all their games.”

Reminded that he had better access to clips of said players thanks to the Patriots video system, Wise nodded but added, I still go to YouTube and watch them.”

That passion has caught on in Foxboro, as has the length of Wise, both in height and wingspan. It’s allowed him to line up at a variety of spots on the defensive line and get results, even when rushing from the interior. 

“It’s a big advantage for him, if he can play with good pad level and use his length, not have it used against him, which I’d say he’s been able to do as a football player through his career in college and so forth,” said Bill Belichick this weekend. “Even in a few days here, we’ve seen examples of that, but we’ll see more of that going forward. But those long guys that we’ve worked with in there – [Richard] Seymour, [Tommy] Kelly, guys like that – the 6’6” type of player that plays inside, there’s not very many of them. We haven’t had a lot of them. I mean, [Ted] Washington was 6’5’’ but that wasn’t really – that was a different kind of 6’5”. So, we’ll see how it goes. You know, we have more background with those players playing outside, like Chandler [Jones] and players like that.”

Maybe Wise should expand his YouTube searches for those players as well and continue to put himself in Belichick’s good graces.

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