And he has said the season could been different without the part they played at a key time.
The Seagulls matched the previous season’s eighth place after a campaign of ups and downs.
And this time it was enough to secure a second European campaign.
Welbeck was among the senior pros entrusted with getting things back on track after a run of one win in 13 games which left Albion in the bottom half of the table.
He scored in successive wins over Brentford and Nottingham Forest and was one of the pillars of a key part of the season.
The top-scorer was non-committal when asked whether a role off the field might have been part of why he was voted players’ player of the season.
But he did accept there were honest words said within the group at times.
Speaking after receiving his award, he told The Argus: “I don't know if it's that specifically, you'll have to ask them.
“I don't know if it's that or if it's performances or whatever. There's a whole lot of things that could go into it.
“We did go through a really, really tough patch.
“There was a lot of difficult times, a lot of honest words were said.
“But what I will say is that we've got some amazing characters in that dressing room and without them this season, we wouldn’t be looking at Europe.
“It would have been a different story so I'm really, really proud of the boys, you know?
“We went through a really difficult patch and we really had to knuckle down and grind out some results and we did that and puts us in an amazing position now.”
Welbeck admitted to bitter-sweet feelings as he was interviewed for fans on the pitch immediately after the season-ending 3-0 defeat by Manchester United.
European qualification will set him up for another career landmark as long as Albion get through the Conference League play-off round in August.
He is currently five short of a half-century of appearances in European club football and has scored 13 goals in those 45 games, the last of them against Roma at the Amex.