Wes Welker Wesley " Wes " Carter Welker ( born May 1 , 1981 ) is an American football wide receiver for the Denver Broncos of the National Football League ( NFL ) . Welker played college football for Texas Tech University . He was signed by the San Diego Chargers as an undrafted free agent , and has also played for the Miami Dolphins and the New England Patriots . Despite being undrafted , Welker has had a successful career . Only one player in NFL history , Gale Sayers , had more all - purpose yards in his first three NFL seasons than Welker did with the Dolphins ; Welker holds the Dolphins ' all - time records for total kickoff returns , kickoff return yardage , and total punt returns . As a Patriot , Welker led the league in receptions in 2007 , 2009 , and 2011 . Welker holds the four highest single - season reception totals in Patriots history , as well as four of the top ten receiving yardage totals , including the franchise record . He also holds the franchise records for most receptions in a single game , most receiving yards in a single game , longest reception , and career receptions . Welker , who had three consecutive 110 - reception seasons ( and has five total ) , is the first receiver in NFL history with at least three 110 - reception seasons , and the first with five 100 - reception seasons . Welker has been selected to the Pro Bowl , the All - Pro Team , or both , in every season of his Patriots career . Early years . Welker was born in Oklahoma City . He started his football career at Heritage Hall High School in Oklahoma City . In his junior year , he helped lead his team to the 2A State Football championship over Tishomingo High School . In that game , Welker had three touchdowns , over 200 all - purpose yards , a 47 - yard field goal , and an interception . Also , in 1999 he was named " The Daily Oklahoman " All - State Player of the Year , and Oklahoma State Player of the Year by " USA Today " . Wes Welker played in the 2000 Oil Bowl , scoring a 40 - yard field goal for the Oklahoma team . Out of high school , Welker was not recruited heavily , as he was considered to be too small to play at the college level . However , after a recruit at Texas Tech backed out of his scholarship , it was offered to Welker . Said Welker of the experience : " I was thinking I ' d get a scholarship somewhere . When it didn ' t happen when it was supposed to , on signing day , I was pretty hurt by it . … In the end , I don ' t think I could ' ve picked a better school than Texas Tech . " At Heritage Hall , Welker was a prolific contributor on offense , defense , and special teams . As a running back , he scored 80 touchdowns ( 53 rushing and 27 receiving ) . As a defensive back , he had 190 tackles , 22 interceptions ( three of which he returned for touchdowns ) , and nine fumble recoveries . As a punt returner , he scored seven touchdowns . As a kicker , he kicked 35 field goals and 165 extra points . His longest field goal , 58 yards , actually exceeds the personal best of current Patriots kicker Stephen Gostkowski . College career . Welker attended Texas Tech University . His last - minute signing proved to be a bonanza for the Texas Tech Red Raiders . Based on a highlight reel from high school , Welker earned the nickname " The Natural " before his freshman year for his versatility and big - game performances . Over his four - year career , he had 259 receptions for 3 , 019 yards and 21 touchdown s , and 79 rushes for 456 yards and two touchdowns . He also scored eight touchdowns returning punts in his career , still tied for the NCAA record . In 2003 , Welker won the Mosi Tatupu Award , given annually to the best special teams player in college football . Welker is a member of Texas chapter of Phi Delta Theta fraternity . Welker was also named to the " Sports Illustrated " All - Decade Team as a punt returner . After his senior season at Texas Tech , Welker was not invited to the NFL Scouting Combine . Professional career . San Diego Chargers ( 2004 ) . Welker , who was not drafted during the 2004 NFL Draft , signed as an undrafted free agent with the San Diego Chargers . Welker made the Chargers out of training camp , but was released after the first game of the season when the Chargers claimed safety Clinton Hart off waivers . Head coach Marty Schottenheimer later acknowledged that in terms of roster cuts , releasing Wes Welker was the " biggest mistake [ he ] ever made . " Miami Dolphins ( 2004 – 2006 ) . 2004 season . After the Chargers released Welker , he passed through waivers . Although the Chargers offered him a slot on their practice squad , Welker chose to sign with the Miami Dolphins instead , where he was mostly used on special teams . Playing against the New England Patriots on October 10 , Welker became the second player in NFL history to return a kickoff and a punt , kick an extra point and a field goal , and make a tackle in a single game . On December 20 , Welker had a 71 - yard punt return to set up Miami ' s first touchdown in an amazing 29 – 28 victory over the Patriots on Monday Night Football . 2005 season . During training camp at the beginning of the 2005 season , Welker was promoted to the third wide receiver spot after Chris Chambers and Marty Booker . He finished the season with 29 receptions for 434 yards , but did not score a touchdown . He also had 43 punt returns for 390 yards , a 9 . 1 - yard average ( 11th in the NFL ) , and 61 kickoff returns for 1 , 379 yards , a 22 . 6 - yard average ( 20th in the NFL ) . 2006 season . After rumors that he would be cut during the preseason , Welker started off being the lone bright spot of the struggling Dolphins offense . Through five games , he netted a team - high 29 catches and team - high 299 yards . On October 8 , he was a huge target for back - up quarterback Joey Harrington , recording a then career - high nine catches for 77 yards in a 20 – 10 loss to the Patriots . For the season , Welker had a team - best 67 receptions for 687 yards and one touchdown . He returned 48 kickoffs for 1 , 048 yards ( 22 . 2 average ) and 41 punts for 378 yards ( 9 . 2 average ) . New England Patriots ( 2007 – 2012 ) . Trade to New England . On March 1 , 2007 , the Dolphins offered Welker , a restricted free agent , a second - round tender ( the second - lowest tender ) of $ 1 . 35 million for a one - year contract . News reports indicated the New England Patriots , who were interested in Welker , had originally considered signing him to an offer sheet ( Miami would have had seven days to match the offer ) ; according to " The Boston Globe " , that sheet would have contained a poison pill provision that would have made the offer difficult for the Dolphins to match . Ultimately , however , the Patriots decided not to use such an offer and traded their 2007 second - round ( Dolphins drafted Samson Satele ) and seventh - round ( Dolphins drafted Abraham Wright ) draft picks to the Dolphins for Welker . 2007 season . Welker ' s first season as a Patriot eclipsed his 2006 season as a Dolphin ; he bettered his totals for receptions , touchdowns , and yardage in his first ten games . In Week 1 , he caught the first of the Patriots ' record 75 touchdowns , equaling the one receiving touchdown he had scored in his three seasons with the Dolphins . He set career bests for yardage three times : in the Patriots ' Week 6 win against the Dallas Cowboys , Welker had eleven catches for 124 yards and two touchdowns ( all career bests ) ; the next week , against the Dolphins , he had nine catches for 138 yards and two more touchdowns ( the most receiving yards of any NFL player that week ) ; and in Week 12 , against the Philadelphia Eagles , he had 13 receptions for 149 yards . In Week 15 , against the New York Jets , Welker reached 1 , 000 receiving yards for the first time in his career ; in Week 16 , against the Dolphins , he recorded his 101st reception of the season , tying the Patriots franchise record set by Troy Brown in 2001 . In Week 17 , against the Giants , he caught eleven more passes , setting the Patriots franchise record for catches with 112 , and tying Bengals receiver T . J . Houshmandzadeh for most receptions in the 2007 NFL season . He also set an NFL record for most catches in a first season with a new team . Welker , who finished the season with 1 , 175 yards and eight touchdowns , received one vote for NFL Offensive Player of the Year , an award won by his quarterback , Tom Brady , and was voted to his first AP All - Pro Team ( second team ) . In his first two postseason games , Welker had 16 receptions for 110 yards and two touchdowns . He tied the Super Bowl record of 11 receptions in a single game in the Patriots ' 17 – 14 loss to the Giants in Super Bowl XLII . 2008 season . Despite the season - ending injury to Welker ' s quarterback , Tom Brady , he continued to amass receptions at the same pace through the first half of the season : through eight games , he had 56 receptions , but only one touchdown reception . He had six or more receptions in each of the Patriots ' first 11 games , breaking Jimmy Smith ' s mark of eight games at the start of the Jacksonville Jaguars ' 2001 season . Welker had what was , at the time , the longest pass play of his NFL career in the Patriots ' 48 – 28 victory over the Miami Dolphins in Week 12 : on 2nd - and - 8 from their own 15 , Welker caught a 5 - yard pass from Matt Cassel , before eluding a pair of defenders tip - toeing and running down the left sideline to the Miami 21 , for a total of 64 yards , 59 yards after the catch . Welker broke the 1 , 000 - yard mark for the second consecutive season in Week 14 against the Seattle Seahawks , catching 12 passes for 134 yards , and catching a pass on the Patriots ' two - point conversion . He finished the season with a league - leading 96 receptions , for 1 , 002 yards ( ninth in the NFL , third in the AFC ) . Against the Oakland Raiders a week later , Welker became the first player in Patriots history , and the eighth in NFL history , to have back - to - back 100 - reception seasons ; the previous player to do it was his teammate Randy Moss , while he was a Viking , in 2002 and 2003 , and Brandon Marshall accomplished the feat in the same seasons as Welker . Welker was fined $ 10 , 000 by the NFL for celebrating a December 21 touchdown against the Arizona Cardinals by lying down in the snow by the endzone and using his body to make a snow angel , violating a recent NFL rule change making going to ground after a touchdown unsportsmanlike conduct . Wes Welker was selected to attend the 2009 Pro Bowl as a reserve , and was again named to the AP All - Pro Second Team . 2009 season . Welker was sidelined in Weeks 2 and 3 ( against the New York Jets and Atlanta Falcons , respectively ) with a knee injury ; rookie wide receiver Julian Edelman took his place in the lineup . In the October 18 ( Week 6 ) game against the Tennessee Titans , Welker caught 10 passes for 150 yards , a new career high ( at the time ) , and two touchdowns . The second of those touchdowns was Tom Brady ' s NFL record fifth touchdown in a single quarter . Welker set career marks again in the Patriots ' Week 11 rematch against the Jets : targeted 17 times , he caught 15 passes — at the time the highest single - game total for any player in the NFL in 2009 — for 192 yards , and added 11 rushing yards on a reverse . In Week 13 against the Dolphins , Welker recorded 167 receiving yards to eclipse the 1 , 000 - yard mark for the third straight season . Against the Miami Dolphins in Week 13 , Welker tallied 167 yards on 10 catches , including a season long 58 - yard reception over the middle . In the Patriots ' Week 14 win at home against the Carolina Panthers , Welker caught 10 passes ( out of 19 total completions for Brady ) for 105 yards . This gave him 105 receptions in just 11 games and Welker lead the NFL in receptions at that point . The performance also made Welker the fourth receiver in NFL history ( after Jerry Rice , Herman Moore , and Marvin Harrison , and tied with Brandon Marshall who did it in the same seasons as Welker ) to catch 100 passes in three consecutive seasons . In Week 16 , Welker caught 13 passes , giving him 7 games with double digit receptions . This gave him the record for most double digit reception games in a single season , passing Marvin Harrison . He accomplished this despite missing two games earlier in the season . In a Week 17 loss to the Houston Texans , Welker suffered a knee injury in the first quarter while running upfield after his only reception of the game . He tore his MCL and ACL in his left knee and was placed on injured reserve on January 6 , 2010 . Welker finished the season with a league - high 123 receptions ( the second - highest total in NFL history ) and finished second in yardage , behind Houston ' s Andre Johnson . He was also selected to represent the AFC in the Pro Bowl for the second consecutive year , and , for the first time in his career , was named to the All - Pro First Team . Because of the knee injury he could not play in the Pro Bowl , and was replaced on the Pro Bowl roster by teammate Randy Moss . 2010 season . Welker rehabilitated his knee during the 2010 offseason with the goal of being ready for the 2010 season opener , while many analysts expected that he would start the season on the Physically Unable to Perform list , and some even speculated that he would miss the entire 2010 season . Nevertheless , Welker played in the Patriots ' Week 1 game against the Cincinnati Bengals , and led all Patriots receivers with 8 catches for 64 yards and two touchdowns ; those catches included Brady ' s first pass attempt of the season and his first touchdown pass . In the Patriots ' Week 9 loss to the Cleveland Browns , after an injury to kicker Stephen Gostkowski , Welker was asked to kick an extra point for the first time since he did so in 2004 against the Patriots ; he converted the attempt . Welker , who had two touchdown catches in the Patriots ' 45 – 24 win over the Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving , finished the 2010 season with 86 receptions for 848 yards and seven touchdowns in 15 games played ( 11 starts ) . He was named to the 2011 Pro Bowl as an injury replacement to Andre Johnson . In the playoff loss to the New York Jets , Welker was benched for the teams ' first offensive series for making a series of foot references in a press conference that took shots at a foot fetish of Jets ' coach Rex Ryan . 2011 season . In the Patriots ' 38 – 24 Week 1 win over the Miami Dolphins , Welker caught a 99 - yard pass from Tom Brady . Tying the NFL record for longest play from scrimmage , it was the 12th such play in NFL history , and the first for the Patriots . The play accounted for the majority of Welker ' s yards in an 8 - catch effort for 160 yards and two touchdowns . In Week 3 , in the Patriots ' 34 – 31 loss to the Buffalo Bills , Welker had 16 receptions for 217 yards and two touchdowns . In so doing , he tied wide receiver Troy Brown ' s franchise record of 16 receptions in a single game and broke Terry Glenn ' s franchise record of 214 yards , set in 1999 . The game also marked Welker ' s 64th consecutive regular - season game with a reception ( i . e . , in every game he has played as a Patriot ) , breaking tight end Ben Coates ' record of 63 games ( set 1992 to 1996 ) . It was Welker ' s second game with at least 15 receptions , a feat equaled only by Brandon Marshall with the Denver Broncos . In Week 5 , in the Patriots ' win over the Jets , Welker caught five passes for 124 yards , including a 73 - yard catch - and - run in which Welker beat Eric Smith and was chased down by Darrelle Revis at the 8 - yard line . In Week 14 , against the Washington Redskins , Welker recorded his 100th reception of the season , giving him four seasons with at least 100 receptions , tying the NFL record shared by Marvin Harrison and Jerry Rice . He also set a personal best with his ninth receiving touchdown . In the Patriots ' Week 16 rematch against the Dolphins , Welker had 12 receptions for 138 yards , bringing him to a franchise - record 1 , 518 receiving yards , besting Randy Moss ' 2007 record of 1 , 493 yards . Through 15 games , Welker led the NFL in receptions , receiving yards , yards per game , and receptions for first downs , and ranked in the top five in receiving touchdowns and receptions of 20 yards or more . He finished the season with 122 receptions ( tied for fourth - highest total in NFL history ) , 1 , 569 receiving yards and 98 . 5 yards per game ( both second to Calvin Johnson ) , and 77 receptions for first down ( tied with Johnson for the NFL lead ) . He also had a career - high 9 touchdown receptions . 2012 season . In the Patriots ' Week 1 win over the Tennessee Titans , Welker tied former Patriots receiver Troy Brown ' s franchise record for receptions ; he took sole possession of the franchise record for receptions a week later against the Arizona Cardinals . During the week 13 game against the Miami Dolphins , Welker , with , 12 receptions , set the NFL record for the most games with 10 or more receptions , tying him with 49ers legend and Hall of Famer Jerry Rice . It was his 17th game completing this task . He also set the NFL record for most games with 10 or more catches and 100 or more yards . With his 16th such performance , he moved ahead of Jerry Rice and Andre Johnson . Welker ended the season tied with Chicago Bears receiver Brandon Marshall for second in receptions with 118 , behind Detroit ' s Calvin Johnson . Patriots career summary . Since joining the Patriots in 2007 , Welker has caught more passes than any player in the league , and ranks in the top five in yardage . Welker reached 500 receptions with the Patriots in just 70 games , an NFL record . Welker holds the franchise record for consecutive games with receptions , having caught a pass in every game ( regular season and postseason ) he has played as a Patriot . As of Week 2 of the 2012 regular season , Welker also holds the all - time Patriots franchise record for receptions , breaking in just 79 games the record of Troy Brown who played more than twice as many games as a Patriot ( 192 regular - season games ) . Welker ranks third in receiving yards behind Brown and Stanley Morgan . Denver Broncos ( 2013 - present ) . On March 13 , 2013 , Welker signed a two - year , $ 12 million contract with the Denver Broncos . Welker ' s signing with Denver was a result of New England Patriots not putting a long - term contract for him . The situation mirrors the sequence of events that led to Adam Vinatieri leaving Tom Brady for Peyton Manning ( then QB of the Indianapolis Colts ) seven years earlier . Career Statistics . Playoff Games . Source : Pro - Football - Reference . com Charity . In 2007 Welker established the 83 Foundation ( after his uniform number in San Diego , Miami and New England ) . The foundation , renamed the Wes Welker Foundation in December 2009 , states its goal is " to influence at - risk youth , by encouraging their full potential through athletics and positive role models . " Its work primarily benefits schools and other organizations in Welker ' s hometown of Oklahoma City . Personal life . On June 23 , 2012 , Welker married Anna Burns in Aspen , Colorado . Burns , from Fayetteville , North Carolina , was Miss Hooters International in 2005 . Welker is also a citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma .