“It’s like being a rookie all over again,” was the succinct way Wes Welker described his foray into coaching.
The Patriots all-time leading receiver is an offensive assistant with the Houston Texans, working again with head coach Bill O’Brien, who he spent time with while playing wide receiver in New England.
“It’s fun being around the guys, having that camaraderie,” said Welker. “It’s long hours. It’s tough work – not as hard as playing, obviously, but it’s a different aspect of the game – really being able to teach all this knowledge that you have and being able to talk these guys through it and articulate it in a way that they understand it, so it’s a little bit of a different deal but I’m having fun with it and enjoying it.”
Welker was in Boston to participate once again in Dr. Robert Leonard's celebrity bartending event, held Wednesday night at Del Frisco's.
The Texans, in many ways, from the head coach to the assistant head coach (Romeo Crennel) to the defensive coordinator (Mike Vrabel) are trying to create a mirror image of what that trio experienced in Foxboro.
“Yeah, why wouldn’t you,” said Welker. “People say, ‘Oh you’re just trying to copy what they did.’ Yeah, we are. We’re trying to copy exactly what they’re doing. We’ve got a long ways to go but we’ve got a lot of guys working hard, so we’ll see what happens.”
After retiring as a player following a short stint with the St. Louis Rams in 2015, Welker set his sights on coaching and found himself pestering O’Brien for an opportunity. When the 2016 season ended, O’Brien encouraged Welker to attend the workouts and practices leading up to the Senior Bowl, and that’s when the position on the Texans staff started to materialize.
“It was really me going after him,” said Welker. “I knew this is what I wanted to do. As far as the opportunities that were out there and the systems and the place I wanted to be, this was like the #1 spot - the guys I was going to be around, the system I was going to be in and the way I knew they were going to run things.”
Five years removed from his stint with the Patriots, Welker reflected on his time spent with Randy Moss and compared how a speedster on the edge, as the Patriots have in Brandin Cooks, can affect an offensive attack.
“It’s always good to have that deep threat,” said Welker. “I know when I was with Randy it was always great because the safeties always had to worry about him going over the top so their depth is a lot more, it just stretches the field and opens up things underneath a little more when you have that threat out there. It’s just another tool of their arsenal, having that aspect of the game.”
As for the notion the Patriots can replicate what the 2007 team accomplished and go through the regular season undefeated, Welker jokingly encourages the chatter.
“I think they should just hype it up completely,” he said. “Absolutely, they’re going to go 16-0. They should just hype that up and keep talking about it. I think that’s my advice to them – just keep on doing that, for sure.”
Houston visits Foxboro on September 24. It will be another reunion at Gillette Stadium.
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