Cutting Washington has proved to be a huge mistake.


During Training Camp and the preseason, one of the battles for a roster spot was between wide receivers Hank Baskett and Kelley Washington. Most thought Baskett should win because of his abilities as a receiver, but some, including myself, felt Washington should be the choice because of his spectacular special teams play.

As it turns out, Baskett was the pick but didn't stick around very long. After Week 2, he was cut to make room for running back Joique Bell, whom the Eagles signed off the Buffalo Bills practice squad.

And now that the Eagles' special teams is an absolute mess, it looks like Andy Reid might be willing to admit his mistake and re-sign Washington. According to Adam Caplan of FOXSports.com, Washington was in Philadelphia Tuesday night for a workout.

The special teams has been an issue for years now, and the team has tried out three special teams coordinators in three consecutive seasons ever since Jon Harbaugh became the secondary coach and then went to Baltimore to be the head coach.

Bobby April has caught a lot of heat this year from the media, but doesn't it make more sense that the problem with the final third of the game is the personnel and not the coach?

The Birds' two best special teams players -- Tracy White and Washington -- were gone before the regular season. White was traded and Washington, as noted earlier, was a casualty of the final roster cuts.

The only true special teams player kept around was Eldra Buckley. A team needs more than that if they're going to get the production needed out of their special teams.

I'm not sure who should get the boot in favor of Washington (it would likely be Chad Hall), but he needs to be back on the team. Just adding another guy who can be a special teams ace might be enough to at least prevent the unit from being a liability.

And at this point, that's about the best we can hope for.