The evolution of Wes Welker
Most football players call it a career when they fail to draw a college scholarship offer. Or when they go undrafted. Or are cut during training camp. Or buried on the depth chart, clinging to a roster spot with all-out effort on special teams.
For Wes Welker, that was a career path.
Now the 5-foot-9 kid from Oklahoma City has more trade value than Randy Moss, next to whom he happens to line up in the most prolific offense in NFL history.
After he was named the Oklahoma State Player of the Year by USA Today his senior year at Heritage Hall High School in Oklahoma City, a scholarship to Texas Tech was only made available to Welker when another recruit backed out of his commitment. The 185-pounder was too small to play college football, they said.
All he did was return an NCAA record eight punts for touchdowns in his career (the record still stands). Oh, he caught 259 passes for 3,019 yards and 21 touchdowns too.
People were confounded season after season.... how does this little white kid have the game of his life against my team - every year? THat's some coincidence. (It took a couple years of Welker torching my Texas Longhorns for me to come around) Eh, its a good story: The gritty kid who didn't have a position in high school carved out a nice little college career in Lubbock, Texas.
Hope Wes got his degree, though...
Sure enough, he wasn't drafted to the NFL in 2004. The San Diego Chargers took a look at him in training camp then kicked the fiesty kid back towards the Oklahoma plains.
Welker overshot the Southwest by a few miles, landing in Miami where the Dolphins gave him a roster spot as a return specialist. In 2005 he worked his way up to No. 3 on the receiving depth chart, caught 29 passes and finished 11th in the league in punt returns.
Well, maybe he'll hang on for a few years, earn enough money to live on for a while...
Last season he turned his Dolphins roster spot into a team-leading 67 receptions. All of a sudden he was targeted by the best player personnel organization in the NFL - the New England Patriots. The Patriots didn't even bother with the complications of signing a restricted free agent, impatiently trading their 2007 second- and seventh-round draft picks for Welker (the Raiders traded Moss to New England for a fourth-rounder). Part of a brand new receiving corps with Moss and former first-round draft pick, free-agent signee Donte Stallworth, Welker's name was somehow never lost in the mix.
Not only did the situation in New England offer fresh talent gauranteed to draw defense's attention away from Welker, to say he is part of the most talented group of receivers ever tp have the pleasure of showcasing Tom Brady's talent would be the understatement of the salary-cap era. We're finally seeing the real Tom Brady thanks to, uh, Wes Welker? You know Brady, he was the guy winning without significant surrounding talent while Peyton Manning couldn't win with a Pro Bowl cast until Brady's unit was dimished to a new low last season.
If the situation is half the battle, Welker hit the lottery.
He tied his touchdown total of last season in Week 1, set career highs for yards (124) and receptions (11) Week 6. His career-high yardage total lasted a week before he broke it again.
Halfway through the 2007 season, Welker has 56 receptions for 613 yards and 6 TD's. He is one of the premier slot receivers in football at the age of 26.
I don't know if you own a television or, say, live in America, but maybe you've heard Welker also happens to be playing in the biggest game of the NFL's regular season this week.
I won't try to expand on the deluge of Patriots-Colts analysis already flowing freely as of Tuesday night with game time rapidly approaching: T-minus 105:32:21...20...19...
So how 'bout a score - Patriots 38, Colts 24