Will Seattle Seahawks Draft Pick Paul Richardson Be Effective?

The Seattle Seahawks are coming off of an amazing Super Bowl win, and they don’t want to stop at just one. With their first pick of the 2014 draft (#45) the Seahawks selected what some people would call a surprise pick of Paul Richardson, wide receiver out of Colorado. Richardson was thought to be a 3^rd or 4^th round talent in this very deep receiving draft, but Pete Carroll and the Seahawks thought otherwise, and they may have had good reason to. A main problem with this pick in many fans eyes is that there wasn’t much name recognition when it came to Richardson; he wasn’t a guy being talked about throughout the whole draft process by the national media, and many fans want someone who they can associate a name with good traits, Richardson wasn’t a familiar face with a ton of hype. Guys such as Jordan Matthews of Vanderbilt and Kyle Van Noy from BYU blew up the national scene; these were both guys that were talked about a lot in the weeks leading up to the draft as potential “steals” in the second round, so on the surface it may seem like the Seahawks reached quite a bit with some “no name” receiver out of a bottom feeder in the Pac-12, but let me introduce you to Paul Richardson and what he has done on the football field before you really start hating the pick.

There is a lot to like about Richardson; he blew up in his last year of college with 1,300 receiving yards and 10 TD to go along with it. It should also be noted that he put these stats up against Pac-12 defenses; he wasn’t playing in the NAIA or FCS. Colorado may not be a great team but they definitely play with some of the big boys in college football; the Pac-12 defenses are no SEC but they aren’t slouches either. He also had a pretty impressive combine in the speed category (which we all know is a huge eye opener in the NFL) by running a 4.33 40-yd dash (and an unofficial 4.28 a couple days prior). He has decent height at 6’ tall and was constantly a vertical/big play threat at the college level, something that the Seahawks believe could translate quite well into the NFL. I went back and watched a little bit of Paul Richardson’s highlights and game tapes because I thought there had to be some other reason that the Seahawks picked him, speed couldn’t be the only thing they saw in the guy to give him a second round grade. What I noticed is that Richardson seems to run routes quite well; he appeared to always be in sync with his quarterback and the routes that I saw him run looked quite polished, this makes me think that he could be a quick learner at adjusting to the speed of the NFL with route running, which is usually a major setback for many new NFL wide receivers. If he did this, he could become much more of an all around threat rather than just a big play receiver. The Seahawks are probably looking at Paul Richardson and seeing a potential receiver with similar game to someone such as Antonio Brown on the Pittsburgh Steelers. If he reached that level, I think there would be a whole lot of happy Seahawks fans, which is saying a lot, because I would assume that the majority of Seahawks fans couldn’t get much happier at the moment.

Now, while there is a lot to like about Richardson, I would be lying to you if I didn’t note that there were a couple valid question marks about him as well. Richardson had a great year in 2013, but he did sit out all of 2012 with a torn ACL. Although Richardson came back from his injury strong (which is a great sign), there are still things to worry about from anyone who has previous knee problems, especially a wide receiver. Also, 2013 was a breakout year for Richardson; he had not been a big time receiver before the ACL injury (only 550 yards in 2011), but at least his progression is steady and he blew up AFTER the ACL tear rather than before. Richardson’s frame scared some people off as well. While he stands 6 feet tall, he is only listed at 173 pounds on his draft profile site, which is pretty small for an NFL receiver. There are some that believe this will be a problem, but I think that once Richardson gets on, and sticks with, an NFL diet and workout program, he will be able to gain the needed weight; his frame looks like he can put on a few pounds without to much trouble under the right guidance.

There were two major question marks on Richardson, but I believe that he will be able to overcome both of them. His injury history is the scariest, but once again, he had his best year in college AFTER his injury so there shouldn’t be too much concern about him still being able to play at a high level. When it comes to his weight that seems to be something that should be handled by year 2 or so. Most college athletes gain a decent amount of weight in their first 1 or 2 years in the pros, and I don’t expect Richardson to be any different. In the end, Pete Carroll has shown that he drafts people for certain reasons, he hasn’t given us any reason to doubt his reasoning yet so I see no reason why we should doubt the Richardson pick to much. Paul Richardson may be seen as a high risk/high reward type of player, but I think in the near future fans will start to realize just why the Seahawks made him their very first pick in the 2014 draft.