---

FOXBORO - Wes Welker doesn't seem to believe that his goals for the upcoming NFL season should be complicated.

"I'm just excited to be out there and excited to compete a little bit, and have a little fun with it," the Patriots' wide receiver said Thursday to a media cluster circling his locker. "My expectations for myself are to go out there and run the play, run it the way the coaches have designed it and the way that Tom (Brady) expects me to run it, and just going out there and playing hard, and letting everything else take care of itself. That's the way we work here."

That certainly served Welker well in 2007, a year in which he went from "secret weapon" to proven commodity with a new team. Joining the Patriots along with Randy Moss was a profitable move for the former Miami Dolphin receiver, not only in a team sense (creating the most productive passing attack in the league, by far), but also personally - 112 receptions in the regular season, tied with Cincinnati's T.J. Houshmandzadeh for the NFL lead), and 11 receptions in Super Bowl XLII, tying Jerry Rice, Dan Ross and ex-Patriot Deion Branch for the Super Bowl record.

A year later, Welker said he's happy to have had a full year's experience in the system to which he was a newcomer a year ago at this time.

"It's been nice to be in an offense for a year," he said. "The more you're in it, the easier it becomes to learn the concepts and what we're trying to accomplish with it." The problem is, Welker hasn't had a lot of time since June to re-acquaint himself with what made the Patriot offense tick.

He participated in the offseason passing camps, but was held out of some of the June minicamp with an undisclosed injury, thought by some to be a groin pull. That extended into training camp, which he opened on the physically-unable-to-perform list. Once off that, he suffered a rib injury on a punt return against Philadelphia and never saw the field again.

Compounding that was the fact that Brady, his quarterback, didn't take a single preseason snap amid reports that he had an injured foot - and amid legitimate fears that a shorthanded offensive line would not be able to protect him adequately in the meaningless exhibitions.

Always a man of few words, Welker did his best in brevity to allay fears that Brady would not be behind center in Sunday's season opener against Kansas City at Gillette Stadium (1 p.m.; Ch. 4, 12).

"He looks like Tom out there, just out there throwing the ball around and making sure that he's preparing just like everybody else, and getting ready to go," Welker said. "Any time you can get out there and get more reps, it's always a plus we've got to make up for lost time, but all that will be determined Sunday against Kansas City."

Welker said that no practice time was wasted during the preseason.

"Even in practice, we were running at full speed and making sure that we're getting the right look by the scout team, and were really able to get something happening," he said.

Similarly, Welker does not expect his rib injury to hinder him in Sunday's game. And when he does step onto the FieldTurf for the first time, he's likely to run up against a former teammate in Miami, cornerback Patrick Surtain, a two-time Pro Bowl participant with 36 career interceptions to his credit.

"He's a very instinctive player," Welker said. "A veteran-type guy it's like he knows the route before it even happens. He's definitely got a lot of quickness, a lot of savvy to him, and he's the kind of guy that you don't want to go to sleep on."

Welker didn't do much sleeping last year, catching five or more passes in 12 of the Patriots' 16 regular-season games and all three playoff games. "I'm just excited to be out there and excited to compete a little bit, and have a little fun with it," he said.

MARK FARINELLA may be reached at 508-236-0315 or via e-mail at mfarinel@thesunchronicle.com. Read Farinella's blog, "Blogging Fearlessly," at thesunchronicle.com/farinella.