With the offense struggling to get out of its own way, the Redskins need to create big plays on special teams. PR Antwaan Randle El hasn’t created any big plays, unless you count fumbles that give the opposing team great field position. Randle El has broken a big punt return in a long time, but at least he could be relied upon to catch the ball. That’s no longer the case, though, with Randle El fumbling twice in key situations recently. In fact, since coming to Washinton, Randle El has gone from being one of the best punt returners to one of the worst.

In Randle El’s final year in Pittsburgh, 2005, he averaged 10.2 yards per return. In his first year in Washington, that number dropped to 8.8 yards. In 2007, it was 6.1, and in 2008, it was 6.5. And this year: 5.2 yards on his 11 returns, which does not count his 11 fair catches or his two fumbles.

With that in mind, Head Coach Jim Zorn and Special Teams Coach Danny Smith have demoted Randle El and plan to use CB DeAngelo Hall as the primary punt returner. WR Santana Moss will also be used from time to time, as will Randle El.

Washington’s top corner, Hall hasn’t returned a punt since 2007, his final season with the Atlanta Falcons. He was used a change-of-pace returner – similar to how the Redskins use Moss – and fielded five punts for 41 yards that year. His longest return was 16 yards.

The only other season he returned punts was 2005, when he fielded eight punts for 82 yards. His longest was a 27-yard return. In his 13 career returns, he has three fair catches, two fumbles and an average return of 9.5 yards.

The last time Hall was regularly returning punts was in college, during his final two seasons at Virginia Tech. He returned 53 punts during his three-year career as a Hokie, averaging 14.8 yards and returning four punts for touchdowns.

I think I speak for many Redskins fans when I ask: Why didn’t this happen sooner? Sure, Randle El has only recently begun fumbling, but it has been obvious since before Thanksgiving of LAST YEAR that the offense was in a major funk that it will not might not come out of as long as Dan Snyder, Vinny Cerrato and Jim Zorn are making the decisions on this team for a long time. The offense has needed a boost from the special teams for some time, but nothing was done about it until now. As is often the case with this franchise, the obvious decision is made only after it could make a real difference.