The Eagles don’t have a punt returner. No problem. They don’t need one.

The most statistically and historically significant play of Jalen Reagor’s Eagles career ought not to be so easily forgotten. The man made only so many, after all.

It happened on Dec. 6, 2020, during Carson Wentz’s final game for the Eagles — the game in which Doug Pederson benched Wentz for Jalen Hurts — so it’s understandable that the freshest memories of that afternoon don’t often include Reagor’s moment in the slightly dimmed sunshine. But that moment matters to the Eagles right now. It should, anyway, and it should inform their strategy and planning for this season. It should be a reason for them, when it comes to an important aspect of their team, to get radical.

The Eagles lost to the Packers that day at Lambeau Field, 30-16, but not before Reagor cut a 13-point deficit to seven by returning a punt 73 yards for a touchdown. Less than two years later, just last week, the Eagles traded Reagor to the Minnesota Vikings for two draft picks, leaving themselves without a player with any real experience as an NFL punt returner. When asked what the Eagles would do to fill the position, coach Nick Sirianni didn’t mention any current Eagles players by name. Actually, he didn’t mention anyone by name.

“Remember, the roster is not just 53 guys, right?” he said. “We have 70 guys at our disposal. We feel like we have good options. … We’re not playing tomorrow.”

No, they’re playing this Sunday in Detroit, opening their season against the Lions. And for that game, for the subsequent 16 in their regular season, and for whatever postseason games they might play, the Eagles should consider a course of action that, generally speaking, is regarded as unthinkable around the NFL: They shouldn’t have anyone return punts.

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They should not sign anyone to do it. They should not elevate anyone from the practice squad to do it. They should not have someone who’s already on the roster — Kenneth Gainwell, Quez Watkins, Boston Scott — try to do it. Whenever their defense forces an opponent to punt, the Eagles should let the ball bounce until it reaches the end zone, zigzags out of bounds, or comes to a stop somewhere on the field of play. No muss, no fuss.

Neither the situation nor this suggestion to address it should be a surprise. For one thing, the concept isn’t new. Kevin Kelley, formerly the head coach at Pulaski Academy in Little Rock, Ark., went 216-29-1 during his career at the school and received national attention — HBO’s Real Sports, The Wall Street Journal, Yahoo! Sports — for his refusal either to punt or to have his team field punts. A similar trend has developed organically in college football: The number of punt returns has been declining while the number of fair catches has been rising, according to a 2020 report on FiveThirtyEight.com. For another, Reagor’s future with the Eagles had been uncertain for months, which inspired a question to Michael Clay, the team’s special teams coordinator, in June about the idea of going without a punt returner.

“I mean, I’m pretty sure all of you would be the first ones to come at me if they hit a 40-yard ball and it rolls 35 yards,” Clay said. “Obviously, there are some guys where sometimes you have a couple tight ends [who] are trying to go and cover, and they’re trying to tackle Darren Sproles. I’ll take my money on Darren Sproles making those two miss or Jalen Reagor making those two miss. … I guess you could put any analytics out there, but that would be my own thought process behind it.”

That thought process led to the Eagles having Reagor as their regular returner last season, and he wasn’t much of one. He averaged 7.3 yards per return, the 17th-best mark in the league, and in the Eagles’ 31-15 wild-card round loss to Tampa Bay, he muffed a punt that led to a Buccaneers touchdown, then dropped another punt later.

Reagor’s presence and erraticism didn’t cost the Eagles much in terms of field position over the season. On average, they had to drive 49 yards to score a touchdown, according to statistician Warren Sharp, a tick better than the leaguewide rate of 50.5 yards. No, it’s those big, damaging mistakes that the Eagles should want to eliminate, and if Clay believes that the possibility of a punt-return touchdown is worth the possibility of those mistakes, he and Sirianni should take a few factors into consideration.

To see an Eagles player return a punt for a touchdown is akin to being struck by a lightning bolt. The Eagles have scored just 32 times on punt returns in their 89 years of existence. Reagor’s 2020 TD in Green Bay was the team’s first in exactly five years, since Sproles did it on Dec. 6, 2015. Only so many of the franchise’s players, and of NFL players overall, have been genuine weapons/benefits as punt returners. From 1993 through 2021, for instance, the Eagles had 13 punt-return TDs, but four players — Brian Mitchell, Brian Westbrook, DeSean Jackson, and Sproles — combined to score 11 of them.

There is no Mitchell, no Westbrook, no Jackson, no Sproles on this team, no one who is a terrific punt returner and a valuable or even essential player apart from his ability to return punts. If such a player were here, proposing that the Eagles should go without a returner would make no sense. But it makes even less sense to waste a roster spot on a marginal NFL player for such a one-dimensional purpose or to force a running back or receiver who is a punt-return novice to learn the job on the fly.

Would going without a punt returner cost the Eagles field position in certain situations? It might, but there’s no way to know for certain unless they do it. At least this approach would guarantee that the Eagles would never turn the ball over on a punt. As it is, NFL returners muff 6.25% of all punts, according to data scientist Adam Brownell. That figure doesn’t include fumbles, doesn’t include the occasions when the receiving team commits a costly penalty during a return, and presumably would increase if a team relied on a less-skilled and less-experienced returner. So why take a chance with a substandard returner, with someone who has an 8, 9, or 10% chance of failure?

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Based on the team they are right now, based on the team they can be this season, the Eagles have more to lose than to gain by accepting such risk. Think about it. Think about what a punt really is. It’s a white flag, a sign of surrender. Your defense has won a battle against their offense. Your opponent is giving you the ball. The Eagles should just take it.