Seahawks sign former Washington Football Team WR Paul Richardson

After being released by the Washington Football Team earlier this offseason, Paul Richardson has found a new home with the Seattle Seahawks.

During the 2018 offseason, the Washington Football Team found a player that they hoped would be a starter on the outside and a potential long-term complement to Josh Doctson.

That was Paul Richardson. The speedy, former second-round pick by the Seattle Seahawks was a free agent and his athleticism intrigued Washington enough for them to give him a substantial deal. Richardson was signed to a five-year deal worth $40 million and was expected to be one of the top receiving options for the team.

That never materialized. Both Richardson and Doctson struggled during their times in Washington. Doctsomn never lived up to his first-round billing while Richardson was plagued by injury concerns and just never proven to be a starter. In two seasons in Washington, Richardson played just 17 games for the team while catching 48 passes for 507 yards and four touchdowns.

Because of his lack of production, Richardson was released just two years into his contract. He hung around on the free agent for quite a long time but was finally scooped up by a new team on Saturday.

Or rather, an old friend. The Seahawks added Richardson to their receiving corps, according to NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo.

It makes sense for Seattle to bring Richardson back. He found success with the team and had 703 receiving yards during his final season with the team. And of the available free agents on the receiver market, Richardson was probably the best player available (save for Antonio Brown and Josh Gordon, who both come with significant baggage).

Richardson will have a chance to battle for the No. 3 receiver role with the Seahawks but he will be a fine backup regardless. That’s the role he’s best served to play moving forward.

Washington isn’t going to miss Richardson that much. Their receiving corps is weak, but Richardson never found success with the team. Keeping him around wouldn’t have made a huge difference, and it made sense for both sides to start anew.

For 2020, Washington will roll with Terry McLaurin, Steven Sims, and Dontrelle Inman as their top-three receivers with rookie Antonio Gandy-Golden potentially replacing Inman at some point during the season. We’ll soon see how they do but either way, keeping Richardson wouldn’t have been a significant upgrade for the squad.