Wes Welker might be glad he'll have a few weeks off from facing a Trufant brother.
The New York Jets deployed 5-foot-8, 170-pound Isaiah Trufant against the New England Patriots wide receiver in an effort to break Welker's streak of four 100-yard games.
"Watch him cover a kick, watch him on the practice field, watch him on the game field. He deserves it," Jets coach Rex Ryan said of Trufant, according to the team's official website. "He's been doing a terrific job for us. He's such a competitive young man that we thought that gave us our best chance. Going against Wes Welker, that's about as tough as it gets. I thought he really competed well."
The second-year pro out of Eastern Washington helped hold Welker to six catches for just 66 yards in Sunday's loss.
Before the matchup, Trufant received advice from his brother, Marcus -- who's two years older and 3 inches taller -- who had experience covering Welker the previous week in Seattle.
"I talked to him a little bit about how he went about sticking him," Isaiah told The Star-Ledger. "He just told me to be patient and that he's a real shifty guy. I'd played against the Patriots before, but I'd never really been part of the defense, so it was new to me. He helped me out."
When the brothers covered Welker the past two weeks, they held him to an unofficial eight catches for 69 yards, according to The Star-Ledger.
Welker still went for 138 yards against Seattle -- mainly burning non-Trufants -- but Isaiah hopes that with the proliferation of smaller, shiftier slot receivers, he might have found his niche in Ryan's defense.
