AP

There’s been a lot of optimism in Seattle this week about wide receiver Percy Harvin’s return to the field with some believing Harvin could play on Monday night when the Seahawks face the Rams.

Harvin said earlier this week that he feels ready to “explode” as soon as he’s turned loose on the field, but it’s still unclear whether that will come this week. Coach Pete Carroll said Wednesday that Harvin has looked good since returning to the field while cautioning that the team isn’t going to speed up the process with Harvin just because the finish line appears to be in sight.

“He’s got to get through normal days of practice and we’ll see how he handles it. With the thought we’ve been going with all along is to take the conservative approach and make sure our guys are healthy and so we’re going to continue to do that,” Carroll said, via the Tacoma News Tribune. “We’ve waited this long to get him here; to this point. So we’ll just continue to take our time and see how he goes. The workload will increase, as we go through the week and next week and all that and we’ll just see what happens.”

If the Seahawks were sitting here with a worse record than their 6-1 mark, there would likely be a greater push to get Harvin back as soon as possible. Since they are 6-1, there’s no reason not to be 100 percent certain about Harvin’s health, even if it means he winds up playing one or two fewer games than he might be able to play under different circumstances.