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Former Patriots safety Rodney Harrison has a unique perspective on Wes Welker and the crushing injury he suffered Sunday. In 2006, Harrison tore his MCL, ACL, and PCL  injured his knee in a basically meaningless game in Week 17 and had to sit out in the playoffs, the same sickening situation Welker now faces.

“I gave my best to him,” said Harrison, now an NBC analyst. “This is a devastating injury to a guy like him. The last thing you want to do as a player is hurt yourself at the end of a season. You never want to hurt yourself. If you hurt yourself, at least let it be in the first half of the season.”

Harrison knew that Welker’s injury would have put him out for the year no matter when he was hurt. His point was, at least an early-season ACL/MCL tear allows a player more time to heal before the next season. (Harrison returned five weeks into the 2007 season, but that owed also to a four-game performance-enhancing drug suspension.) 

In 2005, Harrison tore his ACL, MCL, and PCL and did not return for 10 months. Harrison believes Welker’s elite physical condition will help him recover. But he also guessed that Welker, because of the demands of his position, may miss not only these playoffs, but also significant time next season.

“It’s going to take 11 months to actually have surgery, rehab, and actually get on a practice field,” Harrison said. “It really took me into the seventh week to start feeling good. I had probably a little more devastating injury. Coming back with the type of injury that he has, depending on his ability to cut, move, and shift, it’s going to be a tough injury to come back from.

“The thing about Welker is he is in phenomenal shape. He’s a hard-working guy. That’s one of the things that will help you recover from an injury like that. Once you tear up your knee, you’re never going to be the same, no matter what. Especially if you’re a slot receiver like Welker. Realistically, I don’t know if he’s going to be back by November. That’s just my information.” 

Harrison called the Welker injury “somewhat devastating to the Patriots,” but from his time with the Patriots, Harrison feels they will be able to overcome it. He remembered coach Bill Belichick forcing backups to prepare as if they were starters. He also likes what he has seen from Welker’s primary replacement, rookie Julian Edelman.

“Just talking to people down there, they have a lot of confidence in Julian Edelman,” Harrison said. “He was very inconsistent during the early part of the season, but he looked great last week.

“This, crazy as it may sound, serves as motivation. He’s going to use this to best of his ability to motivate these guys. Basically, what he’s going to tell those guys is, ‘Offensively, they feel like we can’t put up points, can’t score. They feel like Wes Welker was the best player outside of Tom Brady on this team. They’re not giving us a chance.’ So the players in that locker room will use that as motivation.

“This is a team that’s been flying under the radar. I just feel that team will respond. They’ve always responded with Belichick. They believe that they’re going to beat the Baltimore Ravens.”

Clearly, I had my Rodney Harrison injuries confused for a second there. It shouldn't have happened, and I greatly regreat the error.