Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Associated Press
FOXBOROUGH, Mass.
The question seemed to blind-side Tom Brady and he reacted quickly as if he were zipping the ball to one of his three star receivers.
It’s rare, isn’t it, to have a tight end as the marquee player on offense?
“Well,” Brady told the reporter, “Wes is pretty good, too.”
With Rob Gronkowski getting so much attention — from defensive players, highlight clips and the media — Wes Welker sometimes seems overshadowed in the New England Patriots’ offense.
In Saturday night’s 45-10 divisional playoff win over the Denver Broncos, the spotlight focused on Gronkowski and tight end Aaron Hernandez.
Gronkowski caught 10 passes, three for touchdowns. Hernandez grabbed one scoring pass and gained 43 yards on a run out of the backfield. Welker did score on a 7-yard pass, but his 9.2 yards per catch were just fifth on the team.
Welker led the NFL with 122 catches and 1,569 yards receiving this season when he was voted a first team All-Pro and chosen for his fourth straight Pro Bowl. His 554 receptions in his five seasons with New England are the most in the NFL in that span, 80 more than second-ranked Brandon Marshall.
Welker doesn’t think opponents are giving him more space to run his routes while they devote extra coverage to the tight ends.
“I’m just trying to do my job out there. Those two guys are phenomenal players and at some point the defense is going to realize how good they are and it’s definitely going to open up things for me and vice versa,” he said. “We all are together in this.”