If Welker is ducking from hits, it hasn't hurt his production.
FOXBOROUGH – One of the hardest things for Wes Welker to learn as he's gotten older is to know when to tuck the ball to his chest and hit the turf.
As a self-made man who has fought for everything he's received as a football player, it's in his DNA to go all out on every play, fight for every yard, and give himself up for his team.
But as he's gotten older, one of the New England Patriots' points of emphasis with Welker has been to get him to understand when it's time to call it quits and move on to the next play.
"(Coach Bill Belichick and I) talked about it before, and Tom and I have talked about it too," Welker said as he looked at the crowd though a black eye suffered during Sunday's game. "It's a long season. Every little hit, it adds up.
"There are times where you have to realize that the run's over and get down and live to see another day. We've discussed it before. At the same time, if you need a first down you gotta do what you gotta do."
How does he know when it's time to give up?
"You learn," he said.
Maybe he has learned, but it hasn't been easily discernable to the naked eye or on a stat sheet.
Welker, 31, picked up a league best 673 of his 1,354 yards after the catch this season, an average of 5.9 yards per reception.
In 2008 he averaged 767 yards after the catch, or 6.9 per reception. His average yards after catch per reception has hovered around six in each consecutive season, outside of 2010, when the number dropped below five while Welker was recovering from an ACL injury.
So if Welker is doing anything drastically different in his advanced age, it hasn't changed his rate of production.