BY RICH CAMPBELL
ASHBURN
--The Washington Redskins intensified the competition for their fifth wide receiver spot yesterday by signing veteran D.J. Hackett.Hackett has 118 catches for 1,575 yards and nine touchdowns in his five-year NFL career. He played for the Seattle Seahawks from 2004-07 while Redskins head coach Jim Zorn was a quarterbacks coach there.
"I know the way he works and the way he wants things done," Hackett said.
The Redskins added Hackett after waiving veteran receiver Roydell Williams, who broke his left pinkie on Sunday and was expected to miss 3-6 weeks.
Hackett, 28, is competing with a group of unheralded receivers with little NFL experience. He has not played much special teams, however, and Washington's fifth receiver likely will be required to play a large role on that unit.
Washington has flirted with Hackett before. Most recently, he was invited to a tryout in May. Hackett said four teams expressed interest in him in the previous two weeks, but he received no offers. Carolina released him after he caught only 13 balls for 181 yards last season.
"Hack knows the offense, knows the terminology. He was here before for a short time, and he did great," Zorn said. "He worked right in today. Usually it takes a while to get up to speed, and he just ran the routes."
The Redskins' need for another receiver in camp became more urgent Tuesday when second-year wideout Devin Thomas missed practice to rest his balky right hamstring. He sat out again yesterday, as did fellow second-year wideout Malcolm Kelly, who also has a tight hamstring.
Thomas missed time during last year's training camp and during offseason practices because of the same hamstring. His injury last summer kept him out several weeks and derailed his rookie season. He did some light running yesterday and could return as early as today.
Kelly's hamstring tightness is not believed to be serious. He did straight-ahead sprints today and will return to practice soon. He emphasized that he feels no pain in the left knee on which he had offseason microfracture surgery.
MONTGOMERY HURTING
Defensive tackle Anthony Montgomery hopes his ailing left knee will allow him to return to practice on Sunday, and he's not ruling out participating in Saturday's intrasquad scrimmage. He'll participate in individual drills today.
Montgomery had some cartilage removed from his knee during an arthroscopic surgery in January. He participated in offseason practices, but his knee flared up at the start of training camp.
"It might be a little bone on bone rubbing in there," he said. "The biggest thing I'm doing is trying to strengthen my quad muscles and the muscles around it to take some of the stress off it."
EXTRA POINTS
The Redskins signed defensive tackle Michael Marquardt to get their roster back to the limit of 80 players. He spent last year on the Philadelphia Eagles' practice squad after originally signing with the Cincinnati Bengals as an undrafted free agent out of Arizona State in 2008.
Rich Campbell: 540/735-1974
Email: rcampbell@freelancestar.com