Seahawks hope Paul Richardson can pick up where he left off

RENTON – Paul Richardson was starting to break through the rookie wall, starting to earn the trust of his coaches and his quarterback and starting to make an impact when a knee injury sidelined him for the remainder of Seattle’s playoff run last season.

That upward trajectory is one more reason the Seahawks are excited about the impact the second-year wide receiver can have now that he’s inching closer to his return to the field, which could happen as soon as Sunday.

“If you guys remember, Paul was really starting to come on late in the year,” coach Pete Carroll said. “He was catching a lot of passes on kind of intricate route things that we were doing with him, advanced stuff, timing things that we were really counting on him, and he was getting in and out of his breaks beautifully. We really started to go to him late in the season. So it was a great sign and it was unfortunate that he got banged up.”

Richardson practiced on Monday for the first time since tearing his ACL in Seattle’s divisional-round playoff game against Carolina, an injury that required reconstructive surgery and forced him to begin this season on the Physically Unable to Perform list. The Seahawks have 21 days to activate him to their 53-man roster, which they’ll only do once they deem him ready to play in a game. Carroll said it’s not out of the question that Richardson is ready to play Sunday in Dallas after only a week of practice.

On one hand, the Seahawks’ history of bringing back players from serious injuries suggests that they’d prefer Richardson to practice for another week before playing. In which case, he’d be activated for the Seahawks’ Week-10 game against Arizona, following their bye. Then again, Richardson was ready to start practicing last week and didn’t do so because the Seahawks were operating on a compressed schedule due to their Thursday-night game.

That pushed Richardson’s return to practice back to Monday.

“First time out, he looked lightning fast,” Carroll said. “He’s got the fresh legs and he’s already really fast, so he looked good getting started today.”

Richardson caught 29 passes for 271 yards and a touchdown last year, which wasn’t a whole lot more than what Golden Tate – also a second-round pick – produced during what was considered a flop of a rookie season in 2010. But more telling than the final numbers for Richardson was how they increased toward the end of the year, corresponding with an expansion of his role in Seattle’s offense.

He caught a single pass over the first five games – one of which he was inactive for despite being healthy – then became Seattle’s third receiver once Percy Harvin was traded in mid-October. Richardson caught 16 passes (including his lone touchdown) over the final five games of the regular season, which was three more than he caught over the first 11. In Seattle’s playoff game against Carolina, Richardson made a 21-yard catch right before he was injured while trying to haul in a deep pass on the next play.

“I was just upset that I hurt myself when I felt like my team could have used me,” he said.

That Russell Wilson went right back to Richardson on that play was perhaps indicative of the trust he had earned with his quarterback.

“I think once he knew I was a dependable target, I can get open and I can catch the ball, he was encouraged more to find me,” Richardson said of Wilson. “So hopefully I can build that confidence back in our relationship whenever I’m back on the field on Sundays so we can pick up where we left off.”