RENTON, Wash. (AP) - Finally - after knee surgery, jail time, a one-year suspension from the NFL and a setback in knee rehabilitation - Koren Robinson is at peace with his body, his career and his life.

That's made him an unexpectedly large piece of the Seahawks' offense.

"I'm feeling better with my body. It's really starting to understand what I'm asking of it," the wide receiver said with a contented smile after yet another practice with the first-team offense.

Seahawks coaches hoped after they signed Robinson off his couch in Raleigh, N.C., in mid-September he would eventually join Bobby Engram and Deion Branch as their three top receivers. Halfway through Seattle's flip-flopped season, Robinson is No. 1.

Engram missed almost all the preseason and the first three real games with a broken shoulder. He has just 15 catches in five games while lining up outside more than he did last season. While mainly in the inside slot in 2007, Engram set a team record with 94 catches.

Branch has played in just one half of one game since January following reconstructive knee surgery and a bruised heel - though the former Super Bowl MVP did return to practice Friday and might play Sunday at Miami (4-4).

That has left Robinson as the unlikely top option in a flopping offense, three-plus years after Seattle released him because of his alcohol problems.

"I'm pleased with how he's playing. So I guess it is a pleasant surprise, yeah," said coach Mike Holmgren, Robinson's longtime supporter who persuaded team president Tim Ruskell to bring him back two months ago. "I even like more how he's living his life these days, believe it or not."

Seattle's first-round draft choice in 2001 turned a short pass into a 90-yard touchdown on the first play of last weekend's game against Philadelphia. The longest play from scrimmage in Seattle history was the only score in an otherwise miserable 26-7 loss to the Eagles that dropped the Seahawks to 2-6.

He stutter-stepped on his route, then sprinted past three Eagles defenders while cutting across the field for his first touchdown with the Seahawks since November 2004.

"That was special," Robinson said.

In April, he could barely walk, let alone cut. Robinson was unsigned after Green Bay released him in the offseason and working out at home in his native North Carolina when he got too eager with squat lifts that doctors said he should not do on his right knee. He had surgery on that at the end of 2006, when he was with the Packers.

"My body was like, 'Nah!"' he said of the weight-room incident, which kept him from running through June and effectively cost him a chance to sign with another team before training camps began in July. "But I'm smarter now. It enlightened me."

The Seahawks became enlightened about Robinson while facing an epidemic of injuries at wide receiver. After backup quarterback Seneca Wallace injured his calf warming up before the Week 2 game against San Francisco, Ruskell and his staff intensified their research on Robinson.

Team executives flew to North Carolina and became convinced Robinson was fully reformed from his alcohol problems that got him a league suspension from October 2006 to October 2007. So Seattle signed him to a one-year contract.

He missed two games trying to get into football shape, which he's still doing by reporting to work at 8 a.m. each day for extra work with team trainers. He has 12 catches in the four games he's played, and says he's finally back to where he wants to be - physically and personally.

He said he has a "block" in his mind that prevents him from thinking about alcohol anymore and that he has been sober for 27 months. The father to two young boys now has a baby girl, just a few weeks old.

"I feel like what you see on the field," Robinson said with a wide smile. "I'm progressing. I keep getting better."



(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

AP-NY-11-07-08 1911EST