RENTON, Wash. -- Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Paul Richardson was surrounded by reporters at his locker Monday afternoon when his teammate, Chris Matthews, stopped by.

"Somebody said you're not fast enough anymore," Matthews said, pretending to be a media member.

"That's never going to be an issue," replied Richardson with a laugh.

The second-year player suffered an ACL injury during the divisional round of last year's playoffs and had surgery in January. He has been on the PUP list, but practiced Monday for the first time. That means the team has 21 days to decide on whether to activate him to the 53-man roster.

As a rookie (second round, 45th overall pick), Richardson caught 29 balls for 271 yards and a touchdown in 15 games. He played 47 percent of the team's offensive snaps.

Richardson ran a 4.40 coming out of college. He said the training staff has timed him recently and that he's definitely faster than he was before the injury, although Richardson declined to offer specifics.

"First time out, he looked lightning fast," head coach Pete Carroll said. "He's got the fresh legs, and he's already really fast, so he looked good getting started today."

Carroll did not rule out the possibility of activating Richardson before Sunday and having him play against the Dallas Cowboys.

"I don't think it's unrealistic, no," Carroll said. "Because of the workouts they've taken him through, there's a chance of that. And we'll just see what that means. I don't know. I'm not going to hold out hope for it. We're just going to go one day at a time and see what happens."

If and when the Seahawks decide to activate Richardson, they would have to release someone on the 53-man roster.

"The guys have been raving about him in the training workouts," Carroll said of Richardson. "He's been at top speed for some time now. They've worked him really hard. They think he's going to be able to withstand the practice mode. Just got to see how he takes to it and see where he is. He's really anxious to contribute, play right now. Would love to help. But we'll just go at it making sure that we don't overdo it for him right now. That's the main thing."