Why Waiting on Wes Welker Will Pay Off; He's a Must Start in Week 11

Reports of Wes Welker’s injury are sounding like moves in ‘Operation’ week after week after week, but he says he feels “all right” and should be a go for the New England Patriots against the Kansas City Chiefs Monday night.

And with the consistency he provides your fantasy team points, if he feels all right, then I feel all right starting him in Week 11.

Welker has battled neck, rib and knee injuries each of the past three weeks, and has gone out there and batted 33 percent for you as a fantasy receiver. He has been a dud in two of the three, scoring 6.93 fantasy points against Pittsburgh, 19.4 against the Giants and 7.6 last week against the Jets.

But how the Patriots use Welker and how he manages to find the empty spot on the field and get to it means you can never sit Welker unless an injury report says he is out. The games he’s had in two of the last three weeks are outliers of a season in which he had NEVER previously dipped below double digits in Athlon’s half-PPR scoring format, and only gone below 12 once before the latest stretch.

So is the latest stretch a sign of things to come for Welker or just a bump in the road? The production you consistently get from Welker means you must treat this as a bump in the road.

There are a few things you need to take into account for his Week 11 matchup in particular.

• The game is not until Monday night, which gives Welker an extra day to get healthy.
• The game is at home, so there’s no travel in preparation to get ready.
• And most importantly, the game is against a Chiefs team that allows the fourth-fewest pass attempts per game (29.8) in the NFL but is ranked 16th in passing yards allowed per game (230.3), 27th in yard per completion (8.0), and 24th in TDs allowed (16).

It stinks that you have probably your top receiver in an injury situation, having not performed well in two of the last three weeks and playing on a Monday night. But the matchup, Welker saying he feels all right and him being a must-start every week means you have to grin and bear it.

But this should be a week where your anxiety will pay off in a WR1 kind of way when Week 11 comes to a close.

By Corby A. Yarbrough @Corby_Yarbrough on Twitter