A couple of Welker tidbits

“Wes is the prototypical Patriot,” Warner [Welker's HS coach] said. “He’s the perfect fit for the Boston area. He’s a normal guy, an underdog, an overachiever. If he couldn’t play football, I think he’d die. They love that about him.”

One night, Warner was in a Boston cab with a friend on the way to dinner. The friend asked the cabdriver about Welker. The cabby raved about him. Warner jokingly said that he thought Welker was a punk. The cabdriver slammed on the brakes and ordered him out of the car.

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Up close, Welker looks strikingly small. Skinny arms and skinny legs and a skinny chest.

“You see this guy on the field, and he’s a lightning bolt,” the backup Patriots quarterback Matt Cassel said. “He’s running around like a chicken with his head cut off. He’s catching balls. And then all of a sudden, you see him, you’re like, Who are you? Are you in high school?”

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Leach is besieged by high school coaches claiming they have "the next Wes Welker," but he said it's just not that simple.

"You've got be careful of that, because Wes Welkers are more discovered than they are recruited," Leach said. "The trouble is, if you take every guy like that, then you end up with short, slow guys that really aren't that good . . . they capped out in high school. You keep your eye out for them and try to find them . . . but these Wes Welker kind of guys, over time, kind of reveal themselves."

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