FOXBORO –– Leading up to the 2004 draft, the Patriots did their due diligence when it came to the Texas Tech players who would be available come April, as they do with players from schools across the country.

Well, they thought they did.

When the draft came, New England – and every other NFL team, through seven rounds – passed over an undersized receiver from Tech. The year before, the Pats had drafted Red Raiders quarterback Kliff Kingsbury in the sixth round, and he spent his rookie season on injured reserve before being released before the 2004 season.

On Monday, Bill Belichick wasn’t afraid to admit: “We got the wrong guy.”

Welker was the Tech player the Patriots needed all along.

“I did a pretty bad job on that, too. He was definitely on our radar, but you look at him and he’s doesn’t have great timed speed, he doesn’t have great size, but he’s quick (and) he catches the ball,” Belichick said. “They ran a lot of tear screens and stuff like that down there at Tech, so it wasn’t like you saw him running a lot of perimeter routes. He kind of did what he does here.”

As has become known, Welker was signed as an undrafted rookie by San Diego initially, but the Chargers released him after one game and Welker landed in Miami.

Once he started to do damage against the Patriots, Belichick saw the error of his ways, and when Welker became a restricted free agent in 2007, he swung a deal with the Dolphins to get him to New England.

“That’s it,” Belichick said. “If you can’t beat him, join him. If you can’t stop him, then try to get him on your team. That’s basically the philosophy.”

Coming off a 67-reception season with Miami in ’06, Welker nearly doubled that in his first season with the Pats, setting a franchise record with 112 catches. Last year he had 111 and after his 15-catch performance against New York on Sunday, he is on pace for 126 in just 14 games.

That mark would be the second-best single-season total in NFL history.

Belichick compared Welker to Troy Brown, in that both were lightly regarded coming out of college but wound up making a major impact with the Patriots.

“Sometimes those guys, you sort of lose sight of those slot receivers and how good they can be and how big of an impact they have,” Belichick said. “There’s a lot of slot receivers that get drafted in the second, third, fourth round of the draft that aren’t playing football that probably didn’t have 20 catches in their career. It’s not the easiest position to evaluate. He’s a guy that kind of slid by for a little while, bit he was no secret in Miami.”

And he certainly isn’t in New England.

Light, Morris are ‘close’

Belichick was asked about the progress of Matt Light and Sammy Morris, both of whom returned to the field on a limited basis last week but were not activated for the Jets game: “Both guys came back and practiced a little bit last week. They are close, but in making the final game-day roster we decided to activate other players. They are getting better. They are certainly a lot closer this week than they were last week. We’ll give it another week and see what happens.”

While Morris will certainly be a welcome addition to the running back group, which has relied on Laurence Maroney and Kevin Faulk in his absence (with BenJarvus Green-Ellis playing mostly as a fullback), it remains to be seen what will happen with Light. Rookie Sebastian Vollmer has been impressive at left tackle, and while Belichick said last week that Light could play right tackle but is better on the left side, it doesn’t seem likely that they will replace starting right tackle Nick Kaczur with Light.

Was Aiken missed?

Belichick was asked if Sam Aiken’s absence on Sunday – he missed the game with a hip injury – played a role in Chris Hanson’s blocked punt in the first half. Aiken normally serves as Hanson’s personal protector, lining up in front of the punter to help make sure he doesn’t get hit by any oncoming rushers.

But since Eric Smith came through the right side of the line, not the middle, Belichick didn’t think Aiken’s presence would have prevented the block, which was returned for New York’s first touchdown.

“I’ll just say this: I thought Patrick (Chung) and Julian (Edelman) – they both played the personal protector. I thought both of those guys did a good job. The Jets gave us some different rush looks; they are good at rush looks and they’re a good rush team. They rushed us six times down there in the first game, so we worked on the punt rush. We just didn’t do a good job.”

Pats license plate unveiled

Gov. Don Carcieri and Patriots Charitable Foundation president Joshua Kraft were among those on hand on Monday at La Salle Academy as Carcieri signed a bill allowing a New England Patriots license plate for Rhode Island residents.

The design of the plates is still pending State Police approval, but once produced, they will be available for a fee of $41.50 over the regular registration fee, with $20 going to the Patriots’ Charitable Foundation and designated to go to Rhode Island-based charitable causes. The remainder of the fee will go into the state’s general fund.

There was no announcement on when the plates will become available.