Early frustration couldn't stop Welker's emergence
By Tom Pedulla, USA TODAY
Nov 25, 2007
FOXBOROUGH, Mass.  When Wes Welker and his parents arrived at Texas Tech for a recruiting visit in 2000, then-running backs coach Art Briles turned on the charm by referring to Welker, the Oklahoma player of the year, as "the natural" for his ability to excel as a running back, defensive back and returner.
"You must be 'the natural's parents," said Briles, turning to Wes' mother, Shelley, and his father, Leland.
"Yes," Shelley replied, "we are the natural birth parents."
Forgive Shelley if the compliment was lost on her. Even now, as Welker ranks third in the NFL with 68 receptions for the New England Patriots  he totaled 96 catches in three previous seasons spent mostly with the Miami Dolphins  few would view him as possessing abundant natural ability.
Truth be told, he is undersized at 5-9, 185 pounds and so relatively slow-footed that Texas Tech was the only Division I school to offer him a scholarship, and then only after another player reneged on his commitment. Every NFL team passed on Welker in the 2004 draft.
But his startling success  he also has 729 receiving yards, seven touchdowns, 236 yards on punt returns and another 157 on kickoffs  is a testament to his work ethic and unshakable self-confidence.
"Just because I'm undersized and under- this and under- that," he says, "I've still been a good football player since I was little."
Before his rise to prominence with New England, Welker's story had largely been one of constantly striving to convince others of his ability. Leland remembers taking his son to various camps as a teenager to showcase his talent to college scouts. He now views those trips as a mistake. "Those camps hurt him more than anything," he says. "They saw his size and speed and said, 'This ain't going to work' and marked him off the list. I can't say I blamed them."
Leland recalls a scout from Oklahoma who was interested but wanted to get his own time on Welker in the 40-yard dash. "Son," the scout said, "if you can run 4.5 or better, there might be some (college scholarship) money in it for you."
Try as he might, Welker could do no better than a relatively sluggish 4.63 seconds on a grass field.
Leland was discouraged. His son was not.
"I talked to him about maybe lowering his goals and looking at smaller schools," the father recalls. "He said, 'If I can't play Division I, I don't want to play.'"
Welker says of his determination, "Once you start thinking you're not big enough, you're not this, you're not that, you start believing that ... then you're kind of done. You keep doing the things you have to do on a daily basis."
After convincing the Texas Tech coaching staff that his All-State performance as a senior at Heritage Hall High School in Oklahoma City could translate into college success, Welker went on to set NCAA records with 1,761 punt return yards and eight touchdowns. He also sparkled as a receiver with 259 catches for 3,069 yards and 21 touchdowns to go with 559 rushing yards.
Those statistics should have at least earned an invitation to the scouting combine that precedes the NFL draft.
But they weren't, and Leland, knowing his son was so much better than the so-called measurables used to project talent, thought it was for the best.
"If he had gotten invited to the combine, what was he going to show them?" the father asked. "A 4.4 40? That's not going to happen."
While the combine snub suggested Welker might not be drafted, that did not make the process any easier when he heard the names of other players, many of them with lesser college careers, announced through seven rounds of the draft without ever hearing his own.
"I remember at the time punching a few walls," Welker says, "and thinking, 'What is going on here? What are these people looking at? What's the deal?'"
He will always be confounded by the process of talent evaluation that was consistently unkind to him. Given his college production, what was there to suggest he could not continue at the next level?
"You'd have to ask the people who overlooked me," Welker says. "It's hard for me to say it was one thing, because I thought I had done everything right to that point."
Still, he was undeterred.
"I always had determination," he says. "I didn't look at it that people didn't want me. I felt I was doing a good job, and I knew what I knew in my mind."
The San Diego Chargers signed him in spring 2004, but he stuck with them for only one regular-season game before he was released. The Miami Dolphins signed him a week later.
He soon showed them and the rest of the NFL what he could do. When Dolphins kicker Olindo Mare injured his calf while warming up before an Oct.10 game against New England that year, Welker was pressed into service and became the first player in league history to kick off, kick a field goal and boot an extra point while also returning a kick and a punt in the same game.
He not only did all of that, he did it well. He converted his only field-goal attempt, a 29-yarder, and nailed his lone extra-point try to be honored as AFC special teams player of the week. Welker made a lasting impression on New England coach Bill Belichick that day and every time he faced the Patriots during his years with the Dolphins.
"He's done a lot of damage to us," Belichick says. "We had a hard time stopping him on returns. We had a hard time stopping him in the slot. And then he came up here and kicked a field goal and kicked off against us, too. We didn't do too hot on that, either. We thought he was pretty good."
Good enough to acquire him from Miami last offseason in exchange for a second- and seventh-round draft choice and give him a new five-year, $18.1 million contract with $9 million guaranteed.
Welker so impressed the demanding Belichick upon his arrival that he won one of the team's awards for his dedication to the offseason training program.
"Wes is a hard-working guy, both mentally and physically," the coach says. "He takes care of himself, he works hard, he prepares hard. He hustles. He's kind of always on the move."
Welker immediately bonded with superstar quarterback Tom Brady. "He's a fun guy to be around. He always brings a lot of energy. He makes comments about how much he loves playing football and how much he loves playing football here," Brady says. "He's a Patriots-type receiver."
Despite his lack of natural speed, Welker runs his routes so hard and with such precision that he routinely breaks free.
Starting opposite Randy Moss, Welker is having a Pro Bowl-caliber season as a major cog in an offense that's been next to unstoppable.
Entering 2007, Welker's career high for catches in a game was nine. This year, he's caught nine balls in a game three times, including a new benchmark with 11 in an Oct.14 win at Dallas. Welker had never surpassed 100 receiving yards in a game prior to this season but has now done it twice, including 138 yards in his victorious return to Miami. And for a man who came to the Patriots with one career receiving touchdown, Welker's managed to hit paydirt twice in two games.
And the "undersized" Welker has played big in big games. In addition to his 11 catches, he had 124 yards and two touchdowns when the Patriots handed the Cowboys their first loss, 48-27.
Welker also had a huge role in the highly anticipated AFC Championship Game rematch with the Indianapolis Colts. With the Pats down 20-10, he began a fourth-quarter drive with a 26-yard kickoff return and capped it with a 3-yard touchdown catch. Minutes later, he set up New England's game-winning TD drive with a 23-yard punt return to midfield. And if that wasn't enough, his 10-yard catch on third-and-6 took the game to the two-minute warning, and Brady kneeled three times to end the game from there.
"He's been everything you look for in a receiver," Brady says. "You put him in the slot and he's fearless going over the middle. He's so elusive. I don't remember any matchups this year where he didn't have an edge with his quickness."
Leland and Shelley know the only sure way to cover their son.
"We cover him in prayer," Leland says.
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