Westbrook can be a weapon -- if used only sparingly.


As is the case every season, Brian Westbrook has missed his fair share of games. He's never had the reputation as a "warrior" type of player, but it's getting ridiculous.

Sure, he missed because of concussions, but knee and ankle issues also had him on the injury report week after week. It's tough to blame him for the concussions, but after you miss so many games in your career there really isn't a good remaining excuse.

But today Westbrook is back. He is suiting up for the first time in about a month and should prove to be a valuable weapon for this offense -- if he's used sparingly.

Westbrook should be used as a decoy, a target in the passing game, for pass protection, and maybe as a cog for a trick play or two with Michael Vick most likely missing today's game with a quad contusion he suffered last week.

Outside of that, I don't want to see Westbrook with the ball in his hands. Andy Reid and Marty Mornhinweg will probably try to take some carries away from Leonard Weaver and LeSean McCoy and give them to Westbrook, but it's an absolute mistake if they do.

Westbrook has always been a better football player than a running back, and it's time to use him as the athlete that he is and stop trying to turn him into a running back. A guy with only two seasons of over 1,000 yards is not a running back.

Think Reggie Bush. When you think of Reggie Bush, do you think of a great running back? Of course not; You think of a great athlete who just happens to play running back because when you break down the height and weight that's the best place to stick him.

Josh Cribbs is another example. Is he a great receiver? Not really, but he's a fantastic athlete who should be used in many different ways -- near the bottom of the list, however, is actually catching the football.

The NFL is littered with guys like Westbrook, it's just a matter of using him properly and getting the most production out of him without taking away from the real running backs in McCoy and Weaver.

If it were me, Westbrook would see 15-20 snaps with about 8-10 touches. However, he'd only be lined up at running back for, at most, a handful of them. Whether or not Reid does that is a different story, but it's time to face the fact that Westbrook is not the running back we all believe him to be.