SEATTLE — For Seahawks coach/eternal optimist Pete Carroll, describing a player as being “pretty sore” constitutes an ominous statement, so when he described Paul Richardson that way following Saturday night’s game, it wasn’t encouraging news for the Seahawks or their rookie receiver.
A day later, that bad news became official, with the Seahawks confirming a Fox Sports 1 report that Richardson, their top pick in the 2014 draft, has a torn ACL. The injury will obviously end Richardson’s postseason, and considering how late in the season the injury occurred, it will likely put his availability for the start of the 2015 season in doubt as well.
Richardson appeared to be in serious pain, holding his left knee after going to the ground hard trying to catch a deep pass from Russell Wilson, and after the game Carroll said, “Paul sprained his knee, the knee he’s had worked on before, so we’ll see. We’re not sure, sometimes you can’t tell on the tests right now, but he’s pretty sore it looks like.”
As Carroll noted, Richardson had surgery on his left knee to repair a torn ACL in 2012 while playing for the University of Colorado. After Saturday’s game, he wrote on Twitter, “I’ll be back, again!”
Richardson had one catch for 21 yards prior to the injury Saturday, and had come on strong late in the season, catching 13 passes for 142 yards and a touchdown over Seattle’s final three regular-season games. Richardson, who caught 29 passes for 271 yards in the regular season, also served as Seattle’s primary kick returner, meaning the Seahawks will need to replace him there as well. The most likely candidates for that would be Doug Baldwin, who has returned kicks in the past, including a very big 69-yard return in the second half of last year’s NFC Championship game, or Bryan Walters, who returned kickoffs earlier this season, and is currently the team’s punt returner.
The Seahawks will likely look to another rookie, fourth-round pick Kevin Norwood, to help fill the void in Richardson’s absence. Norwood has played well in limited opportunities, but was inactive Saturday because unlike other receivers, he doesn’t have a role on special teams. In games where Norwood has been active, however, he was ahead of Ricardo Lockette, Walters and Chris Matthews in the receiver rotation, so he could end up being Seattle’s third option behind starters Baldwin and Jermaine Kearse.
Herald Writer John Boyle: jboyle@heraldnet.com
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