Four years after running back Ricky Williams shocked the football-following world by retiring after only five NFL seasons, could Ricky be ready to re-emerge as the best player on the team?

Armando Salguero of the Miami Herald raises the question, and based on Ricky’s offseason practice performances it’s not as ridiculous as it sounds.

“I have to say, watching him practice, I was very impressed with his quickness, his explosion, his effort,” former Redskins and Texans G.M. Charley Casserly told Salguero.

“The guy jumped out at you, watching him out there.”

First-year head coach Tony Sparano seems to agree.

”I see the potential in him.  I sure do,” Sparano said.  “When I watch him, I see him being explosive in and out of the line of scrimmage.  He’s explosive with what he does in the second level and his ball skills when he catches the ball.  All those things that were there when I [coached] against him and he ran all over the place against us are still there.”

Casserly also compared Williams to John Riggins, who had a late-career resurgence with the Redskins in the early 1980s.

So maybe Ricky will displace Ronnie Brown as the go-to option at tailback this year.

Or maybe this is all part of a ruse by Fins V.P. of football operations Bill Parcells to create a trade market for Williams.