"Turns out Asante Samuel had a little chat with Terrence Wheatley when the Philadelphia Eagles were in town for a preseason game last month.

Wheatley wears Samuel’s old No. 22, so the former Pats cornerback had a message for the rookie.

“(He was) telling me, ‘You better represent me well,’ ” Wheatley said of the pregame conversation. “I told him, ‘I’ll try. I’ll see what I can do.’ ”

It was suggested to Wheatley that maybe teams wouldn’t throw at him, and he’d avoid being a target, given he was wearing Samuel’s number.

“Aw, that would get boring,” Wheatley said.

It seems the rookie prefers having a little action come his way. He’s not afraid to have quarterbacks target him.

“You always want to see what you got,” Wheatley said. “It’s definitely a show of respect when they don’t throw your way, they obviously respect you, but then again, being a competitor, you always want to compete, too. So it goes both ways.”

Bill dodges Ty talk

During his conference call with the media yesterday, Pats coach Bill Belichick didn’t rule out the possibility of additional roster moves before the week was out. When asked if he had been in recent contact with free agent cornerback Ty Law, he dodged the question.

“Right now, the only players I feel comfortable talking with are the ones on this team. There are a lot of players that aren’t on this team. It’s too long a list to get into,” Belichick said. “So, the ones that are here, those are the ones getting ready for Kansas City. If we bring someone else in, we do. We’ll talk about them then. If we don’t, we’ll go with what we got, and that’s what we’re going with right now.”

During his weekly chat Monday on WEEI, Belichick did discuss Junior Seau and the possibility of the linebacker’s return.

“I’ve talked to Junior and I think Junior is staying in shape, and like he always is, surfing out there and managing his restaurant, enjoying San Diego and enjoying life like he always does. Right now, our situation is what it is,” Belichick said. “We’ve cut down to our 53-man roster. We’re moving on. I don’t know what’s going to happen in the future, but if the right situation (comes up), I might contact Junior. I don’t know what he would say at that point, but right now, that’s not really a big concern for us. Our major concern is just taking the players we have and trying to improve this team and getting them ready to go against Kansas City.”

Ready to run

There wasn’t much running room for running backs during the preseason. But Laurence Maroney [stats], who gained just 44 yards on 22 carries, isn’t concerned about having a lack of production heading into the regular season.

“I’m feeling good,” Maroney said Monday. “I’m ready to get the season going. I’m excited to get back out there and show the world what I can do.”

The Pats lead back was a full-time participant in training camp, unlike last season when he was coming back from a shoulder injury, and got through the preseason unscathed."