Seahawks kickoff minicamp

RENTON — There’s a hill here at the Seahawks practice facility, and Deion Branch, Cory Redding and any other Seattle players recovering from injuries know it all too well.

It doesn’t look like much, just a grass-covered mound just east of the practice fields that rises up at about a 45-degree angle. But for rehabbing players, that hill can be a real source of pain.

They’ve walked, run and jumped up and down this hill — forward and backwards — while the rest of their teammates practice a few yards away.

On Wednesday, as the Seahawks kicked off a three-day minicamp, Branch, Redding and cornerback Kelly Jennings were all back on the field practicing for the first time this offseason, and all were thrilled to on the field — and not on the hill.

“I’m going to leave that thing alone,” Branch said nodding towards the hill. “I’m good. Hopefully, I’m done. You can do some good work over there, but I’m done. I’m going to leave that hill alone. … I’ve done pretty much everything you can do on it now.”

Branch, who had surgery in early March to clean out cartilage in his knee, was limited in practice, as was Redding, who is also recovering from knee surgery. Seahawks coach Jim Mora said the team is taking a cautious approach will all of the injured players.

“In the offseason, we take a somewhat conservative approach to bringing players back, and we do that because we want them to be at full strength when we start training camp,” Mora said. “But it was good to see those guys work back into practice and get some work in. We expect big things from both of those guys. They’ve wanted to be out here, and they’ve worked as hard as anybody in the organization. They just haven’t done it on the field, so I think for them to get back on the field was really nice.”

Mora said he expects to have all of the team’s injured players back for training camp, barring any setbacks.

Redding, a defensive lineman the Seahawks acquired in a trade with Detroit this offseason, agreed with Branch that practice is better than rehab work.

“I prefer being out here in the sun than going in there,” he said motioning towards the weight room. “And the trainer, Reggie (Barnes), is killing me every day. I’ve been working really hard and Reggie’s been putting me through the ringer, so when I get back out here the work load is easy.”

NOTABLE

Mora was asked Wednesday about former NFL quarterback Michael Vick, who he coached in Atlanta, and said that, while Vick won’t be getting a second chance at football in Seattle, he deserves one somewhere.

“I believe he’s paid his debt to society,” Mora said of Vick, who is serving the final part of a prison sentence under home confinement.

Mora went on to say that “It’s a sticky situation, one I’m not comfortable talking about. The fact of the matter is, Michael Vick is a member of the Atlanta Falcons organization right now. For me to be speaking about him would be speaking out of turn. I’ll just say this for the record: We are very happy with the quarterbacks we have on our roster. We have no intentions of adding another player to our roster at this time.”

After finishing with the phrase, “at this time,” Mora immediately corrected himself.

“You know what, just cut out the ‘at this time,’ because then people will speculate for the next three months,” Mora said. “We have no intentions of adding a quarterback to our roster.”

BETTER THAN ADVERTISED?

Mora said that so far this offseason, rookie linebacker Aaron Curry has been what the Seahawks were hoping for when they made him the No. 4 pick in the April draft. Mora made sure to point out that a lot remains to be seen since the team hasn’t practiced in pads, scrimmaged or played a game, but he said one aspect of Curry’s game that looks better than expected is his pass-rushing ability. Curry wasn’t asked to rush the quarterback much in Wake Forest’s defensive scheme, so some questioned whether he had that ability.

TWO KENTS IN ATTENDANCE

Watching practice Wednesday was Oregon basketball coach Ernie Kent. His son, Jordan, who the Seahawks drafted in 2007, will be battling for a roster spot at receiver this summer.

Herald Writer John Boyle: jboyle@heraldnet.com.