NFL Capsules - AFC: Veteran CB finally healthy, returns to practice
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee veteran cornerback Cortland Finnegan returned to practice Monday after missing the past three weeks and the first three preseason games with an injured groin and hip flexor.
Finnegan has started 47 of his 61 games in his first four seasons, and the Titans are counting on matching him up against opponents' top receivers this season. He talked after practice with a bag of ice taped to his right hip and said it hasn't been easy watching his teammates practice without him.
"It was a blessing to be back out with those guys and running around. I felt like a loser, an outsider not being able to practice with them. Now I feel a part of the team again," Finnegan said.
Finnegan led the Titans with five interceptions last season despite missing three games with a hamstring injury. That matched the number of interceptions he had in 2008 as an All-Pro, but the Titans struggled without him, which prompted team officials to give the cornerback more rest to be fully recovered going into the season.
He said he feels recovered. Being patient was the tough part.
"I did a good part taking it and healing it. Now I'm just working out some cobwebs. I look forward to tomorrow's practice, and hopefully I get to play Thursday night," he said.
That would be in the Titans' preseason finale against the defending champion New Orleans Saints (2-1), and he hopes to be able to play on both sides of the field.
The Titans have used Finnegan's absence to give extra playing time to the cornerbacks competing to start opposite him. Ryan Mouton started opposite Jason McCourty in Seattle, while rookie Alterraun Verner has started the past two games in Finnegan's spot.
"Vern and J-Mac are playing so well, they're on my heels if not surpassed me. I need to get out there and make some plays," Finnegan said.
Receiver Justin Gage also returned to practice after a sore right thumb had kept him out of the past two preseason games. But left guard Leroy Harris sat out with an ankle Monday.
The Titans (1-2) have yet to heal up completely on defense. Tackle Tony Brown and linebacker David Thornton remain on the physically unable to perform list, though coach Jeff Fisher said Monday both still have a chance to play Thursday night. The Titans will practice Tuesday with a walkthrough Wednesday.
Fisher cited rookie Derrick Morgan's strong play on 15 snaps in Saturday night's 15-7 loss to Carolina as a player who practiced only once before getting into a game.
"We don't have a whole lot of time, but both of them are experienced and they've played before," Fisher said of Brown and Thornton.
Notes: Rookie LB Rennie Curran (hamstring), OL Mike Otto (right knee), DT Kareem Brown (left shoulder) and DE William Hayes (right knee) also missed practice. CB Pete Ittersagen, who suffered a concussion Aug. 23 in a game against Arizona, also returned.
Chance looms for Edgerrin James' cousin with Colts
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Javarris James, an undrafted rookie running back, understands his situation very well.
A cousin of former Indianapolis Colts Pro Bowl running back Edgerrin James, the younger James knows that time is running short for him to show what he can do to the Indianapolis coaching staff.
The team's final preseason game Thursday night against Cincinnati could be his final opportunity to play in a Colts uniform. NFL teams are required to trim the preseason roster to the regular season maximum of 53 players by Saturday afternoon.
"(The Bengals game) is big for a young guy like me. It's the last preseason game and that's when they make a lot of final (roster) decisions. This is basically my season right here," James, a former University of Miami back, said Monday.
James followed in his older cousin's footsteps in college as well as his choice of NFL teams. A four-year letterwinner for the Hurricanes, he rushed for 2,162 yards and 18 touchdowns during his collegiate career. Despite those productive numbers, he was not selected in last April's draft.
He is battling first-year running back Devin Moore to be the Colts' fourth running back. He's also in contention with Moore, along with rookie wide receiver Brandon James and rookie cornerback Ray Fisher, as a potential kickoff and punt returner.
Through the first three preseason games, Javarris James is the team's second-leading rusher with 53 yards in 15 carries. He has yet to return a kickoff or punt in a preseason game, but that could come against the Bengals.
"I feel like I can play a lot of special teams. I can also play the fullback position (on offense), I've got good receiving skills and I can block," he said. "I feel like I have a good feel for this offense. So I just hope for best.
It's a learning process. Each week (of training camp), I've been getting better. I've been limiting my mistakes in practice and in the games.
"But this is a big game for me (Thursday night). I understand that I'm going to be able to play a lot (against the Bengals), so I just want to try and showcase my talents. Not just for the Colts, but for the other 31 (NFL) teams."
Jets high on defense even without Revis, Pace
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. (AP) — Bryan Thomas had a get-well message for Calvin Pace, his injured teammate.
"Calvin is selfish!" the New York Jets linebacker shouted with a smile. "Write that down!"
Pace will be sidelined a few weeks with a broken right foot, something Thomas thinks is downright inconsiderate. All jokes aside, some might consider not having their top pass rusher in Pace or shutdown cornerback in Darrelle Revis a dire situation.
Not the Jets.
"We'll get it done," coach Rex Ryan said Monday. "This is what we do. We're a team defense. That's why I know our defense will play great. There's not a question in my mind that we'll play great. We play great team defense."
Pace, a starting outside linebacker, was scheduled to have surgery in North Carolina on Monday night to repair a broken bone in the foot. He and the team said they would know more about how long he'll be sidelined after the procedure, but he'll miss at least the opener against Baltimore on Sept. 13.
That means Thomas, Jason Taylor and Vernon Gholston will replace Pace, who led the team with eight sacks last season despite being suspended four games for violating the league's policy on performance-enhancing substances.
"We have guys that are going to run around and I know Rex is going to pick the best roster to make this thing happen," Thomas said. "When one guy goes down, the next guy just has to step up and keep the ball rolling. You can't say, 'OK, we're going to put the season on pause,' because one guy goes out."
But the Jets might also be without Revis, locked in a bitter contract dispute that has no end in sight. Revis, recognized by many as the league's top player at his position, wants to be paid as such.
His holdout reached its 30th day Monday, and it's a real possibility Antonio Cromartie and rookie Kyle Wilson will be the starting cornerbacks against the Ravens. Unless, of course, the sides reach an agreement soon.
"Obviously, you're talking about two great players and overall, in your mindset, you'll miss them, but it's about all of us going out there and making something happen," Gholston said. "The way we're set up, it's not just one guy. That being said, everybody else has to step up and keep the defense being No. 1."
Ryan's aggressive defense is designed to throw offenses off with its unpredictability as players line up at different spots throughout games.
"Just in case something like this happens, you already know both positions, the strong and the weakside outside linebacker positions," Thomas said. "Calvin going down, it's a big void on the defense, but you still have somebody who can step up and fill that role."
Just as the Jets had last season, when they opened without Pace and the suspended Shaun Ellis. New York also lost defensive tackle Kris Jenkins later in the year and still finished with the top overall defense.
"We can get it done," Ryan said. "We've proved it all through the years. That's all I know is great defenses. That's what we stand for. It's not about one guy or two guys. Every team is going to go through one or two guys you're going to miss."
Thomas will likely assume a lot of the man-to-man coverage duties Pace was responsible for. Meanwhile, Gholston will flip between defensive end and outside linebacker, as he did last season. But Taylor, the NFL's active sacks leader, will be on the field a lot more than originally expected.
"I wasn't walking around telling everybody I was a situation guy," Taylor said. "I want to play. ... It's my job to step up and help. Do I think I can do it? Yeah, that's what I do."
Taylor, once one of the Jets' most despised opponents while with Miami, can quickly endear himself to the fans and his new teammates with a few sacks.
"People can write down whatever they want," Taylor said. "I've always kind of had that chip on my shoulder throughout my career. People have always said I couldn't do things. ... It's dependent on me now to go out and help this team any way I can."
Without Pace and Revis, the Jets can certainly use as much help as they can get. Just don't think for a minute that they're panicking.
"It's easier with those players around, but we have confidence in the guys we have here, myself included," Gholston said. "It's all about the guys we have here and believing in the system."
-- Dennis Waszak Jr.
Jets' Clemens was upset he got no shot as No. 2 QB
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. (AP) — Kellen Clemens entered training camp thinking he had a shot at being the New York Jets' backup quarterback.
It turned out Mark Brunell won the spot before the competition even began, something that took Clemens a little while to get over.
"Four or five days, and it showed in my play," Clemens said Monday. "I went to the coach and I said, 'Look, I'm frustrated. What do I do?' (He said), 'Well, you can't do anything. Go out there and play like you can,' and that's what I did."
Clemens appears at least to have beaten out Kevin O'Connell for the No. 3 job behind both Brunell and starter Mark Sanchez.
"I would say he's got a pretty strong chance of making this team," coach Rex Ryan said.
"Score!" Clemens said, tongue in cheek. "That's a heck of a lot better than it could have been."
Clemens has gone from the future of the franchise to trade bait — or being cut by Saturday's 53-man roster deadline — in just a few seasons. The second-round pick out of Oregon in 2006 came to the Jets with high expectations, but appeared on his way out this summer after the team signed Brunell.
He still could be, despite the vote of confidence from Ryan. Clemens is due to make $1.1 million this season, a high price tag for a No. 3 quarterback.
"I don't know all the games they play," Clemens said. "I take Rex's word. He's always said he's a man of his word and he's going to tell you how it is. So, when he says, 'Yeah, I think he has a pretty good chance,' I feel like I have a pretty good chance. He certainly didn't say that I was a lock."
Clemens addressed the media when the team reported for camp on Aug. 1 in Cortland, N.Y., and said he expected to compete with Brunell for the backup job. A few hours later, Ryan shot that down, saying Brunell was the No. 2 guy.
"That was a situation where Rex and I had to visit behind closed doors," Clemens said, "and just kind of try to get a better understanding because I was under a different impression coming in."
Clemens has since put on a positive front, even amid rumors he could be traded or cut. He's 11 for 16 for 116 yards in two preseason games; he didn't play against Washington last week. Clemens is expected to get lots of time in the preseason finale at Philadelphia on Thursday night.
"Statistically, I haven't blown anything away," he said. "My percentage is good, yards aren't real high (and) I haven't thrown a touchdown, but how I've graded out, it's been my best preseason ever."
So, does he think he has been given a fair shake this summer?
"To be the No. 3?" Clemens asked with a smile. "Yes."
Clemens has developed a good relationship with Brunell — "I can't stand him. No, he's a great guy." — and the two talk about hunting more than football. He believes he can still be an NFL starter, but also wants to remain with the Jets, wherever that may be on the depth chart.
"The Jets have an awesome chance to win the Super Bowl this year and I'm excited about the opportunity to be a part of it," he said. "I hope that I'm here and we'll just move forward with whatever the results are come cut day."
-- Dennis Waszak Jr.
Pats players face tense time with roster cut ahead
BOSTON (AP) — When Mike Wright was coming out of high school, no Division I team wanted him. When he was leaving college, no NFL team drafted him.
When the New England Patriots cut their roster on Tuesday, there's no chance he'll be released.
The defensive lineman is entering his sixth season with the Patriots but still knows what teammates are going through as Tuesday's deadline for reducing the roster from 80 to 75 players approaches.
"They don't know what's going on, to be honest with you. Their heads are spinning" he said Monday. "It's a tough time for them."
Wright played one season at Ashland, a Division II school, then transferred to Cincinnati where he walked on to the team and ended up leading its defensive tackles with 42 tackles as a senior. The Patriots took a chance on him and he appeared in 13 games as a rookie in 2005.
And he kept getting better.
Last year, Wright started nine games after defensive end Richard Seymour, a five-time Pro Bowler, was traded to the Oakland Raiders before the season. Jarvis Green, who started 12 games at end, signed with the Denver Broncos after the season. And Ty Warren, a starter at end the past six years, is out for the season with a hip injury.
So the Patriots may need Wright more now than ever. But he won't let that convince him that coach Bill Belichick will keep him even though his job is secure.
"I always look at myself as on the bubble, whether I am or am not. I play every down like it's my last and try to make the team every day," Wright said. "There's more stressful years ... but this year I don't know who he's keeping on the team and you could say I'm on the team, but only Bill knows that."
And what Bill knows might not be what Matthew Slater, whose status is far more precarious than Wright's, wants to learn.
The wide receiver-kick returner is going into his third year after being drafted in 2008 in the fifth round out of UCLA. In his two years, he has no catches and 22 kickoff returns.
He said Tuesday that it's an unsettling time for him.
"It's going to be disappointing if things don't work out the way you want them to, but sometimes things are out of your control," Slater said. "Like I always say, you can only control your actions and your attitude, and everything else is out of your control and you have to learn to accept that.
"So (if) you come out with the proper attitude and you come out and bust your butt every day, you can leave with you head up either way it goes."
Few players improved their chances of making the team in the Patriots last exhibition game.
They were thoroughly outplayed in a 36-35 loss to St. Louis in which the defense rarely stopped the Rams on third down and the offense rarely converted on third down.
That resulted in the Patriots holding the ball for only 16 minutes, 14 seconds and Belichick lashing into them at a team meeting.
"It's behind us now. That's why we're out here this hot day, out here in full pads," linebacker Jerod Mayo said. "We did get some humble pie and we didn't play like we were supposed to. We just played dumb football, had too many penalties, couldn't get off the field on third down."
Their last chance to show improvement comes Thursday night in their final exhibition game, at the New York Giants
"Guys learn from the negatives and positives of every game," Wright said. "You take that and try to fix it on the practice field and then go back the next week and get better, so we're trying to do that this week."
Wright started against the Rams, but first stringers are expected to get little playing time, if any, in the last exhibition game.
Belichick already knows what he provides.
"He's a very versatile player, athletic enough to do some of the more skilled things, powerful enough to stand up against big guys or more than one guy, double teams, things like that," Belichick said. "From where he's started, he's really had a good career to this point and he continues to work hard and build on it."
In his first Patriots camp, Wright simply was trying to make the practice squad of a team that had won the Super Bowl the previous season.
Week after week, there was a decent chance he'd get word that he had been cut. That word never came.
"Nobody even told me I made the team. I just didn't get released," he said. "I always thought I'd get a phone call or an official, 'you're on the team.' There was nothing (but) my stuff was still in the locker."
It still is.
-- Howard Ulman
WR Parrish finally finding niche in Bills' offense
ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) — The hardest part of Roscoe Parrish's most frustrating season in the NFL last year involved the Buffalo Bills' receiver trying to explain to his 8-year-old son why he wasn't getting any playing time.
Benched for four games, sparingly used in others and even stripped of his regular role as a returner, Parrish recalled the difficulty he had in coming up with any firm answer to satisfy his biggest fan, Roscoe Parrish III.
"The only thing I could tell him was, well, I didn't know what to say," Parrish said after practice Monday. "He's so competitive. And by him not seeing me playing, I knew it kind of hurt him."
Based on how this preseason has gone so far, Parrish's phone calls home should go far more smoothly this year.
The invisible man in Buffalo no longer, Parrish is suddenly feeling revitalized by having secured the slot receiver's job in first-year coach Chan Gailey's newly introduced offensive scheme. It's a role that Gailey pegged for Parrish since spring, and one that should allow the undersized — he's generously listed at 5 feet 9 — but speedy player to use his abilities to exploit mismatches against slower defenders.
The sixth-year NFL player proved that in a 35-20 win over Cincinnati on Saturday, when he scored on a 12-yard catch by getting free over the middle and outrunning linebacker Dhani Jones to the end zone. And it's been evident in Parrish's numbers through three preseason games, in which he's tied for the team lead with seven catches and second with 82 yards.
"Everything's been going pretty good, I must say. You've seen that I've been more involved than in recent years here," Parrish said. "I'm just taking advantage of my opportunities right now."
The difference is that Parrish is finally getting a real opportunity, which is something that couldn't be said for the player in his previous five seasons in Buffalo since being selected in the second round of the 2005 draft out of Miami.
Though a threat in the return game, Parrish could never find his niche as a receiver. His best season came in 2007, when he had 35 catches for 352 yards and a touchdown with three starts in 16 games.
The low point was last season, when Parrish became an afterthought in Buffalo's passing attack following the addition of Terrell Owens. He was then benched for four straight games, a move which immediately followed a 6-3 loss to Cleveland, during which Parrish muffed a punt that set up the Browns' winning field goal.
He finished with three catches for 34 yards in 12 games.
"Right now is right now," Parrish said, keeping his focus forward. "We've got a different approach and I'm just looking forward to this season."
It's the same approach Gailey is taking.
When informed of Parrish's limited role last season, the coach said, "I don't know anything about that."
As for this season?
"I'm not just comfortable, I'm excited about Roscoe Parrish and what he's going to bring to our football team," Gailey said. "We're going to work to try to make sure he's a major part of this offense."
Gailey has a track record for designing offenses around play-makers, which has become evident in how the Bills are using rookie running back C.J. Spiller in a variety of roles.
Quarterback Trent Edwards can foresee Parrish having a similar impact.
"I feel like we're putting him in good spots to win," Edwards said. "Roscoe in the slot is a tough player to stop."
Parrish remains cautious when outlining his expectations. He's had coaches talk him up before and then fail to get him involved. And he's still stung by what happened last season.
The one thing Parrish did learn was how important it was to not get down.
"Sometimes when you mope or feel sorry for yourself and your opportunity comes, you don't succeed, you don't seize the moment," he said.
For motivation, all Parrish needs to do is recall the conversations he had with his son.
"Every time I wake up and come on the field, all that lingers in my head," Parrish said. "I have to be the best that I can be, and set a good example for him, my son."
-- John Wawrow
Confusion, not clarity, for Steelers QBs
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Right about now, Ben Roethlisberger's suspension must seem a whole lot longer to the Pittsburgh Steelers than it did when it was announced in April.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is expected to trim Roethlisberger's punishment from six to four games as early as this week, but the Steelers still won't have their $102 million quarterback on the field for a game that counts until mid-October.
They must be wondering if it will take until then to find the clarity coach Mike Tomlin said he's seeking at quarterback. So far, there's been a lot of confusion and consternation about the quarterback play, but very little clarity.
With only a single practice remaining before the final exhibition game Thursday against Carolina, there's not much time for Tomlin to find it.
"It's a process. Every step we take, there's clarity," Tomlin said Monday, only a few hours after returning from a Sunday night loss at Denver. "We continue to push forward toward that. I like the way the men are working."
Even if this quarterback-by-committee system isn't working exactly the way Tomlin envisioned when training camp started exactly a month ago.
For example:
—Roethlisberger started the last two preseason games, including the all-important third game in which the starters play far longer than they do in the other games. While Tomlin is sending the message then the two-time Super Bowl winner is the starting quarterback, such a rotation appears to clash with his expressed goal of using training camp and the preseason to get ready for the start of the season.
That season starts Sept. 12 against Atlanta, not Oct. 17 against Cleveland, when Roethlisberger is expected to make his regular-season debut.
—It has been evident since the Steelers traded for him in April that Byron Leftwich would be the starter when Roethlisberger is out, at least as long as he stays healthy. But Leftwich didn't complete any of his four passes while playing with second-team players in the 34-17 loss at Denver, and he was hurried out of the game when the line proved incapable of handling the Broncos' pass rush. Leftwich threw a long TD pass to Mike Wallace against the Giants on Aug. 21, but his nine completions are the third fewest of the four quarterbacks in camp.
—Third-year quarterback Dennis Dixon is expected to be used mostly in specialty packages that take advantage of his running ability, yet he got more work with the starters in Denver than any other quarterback. After looking confident and polished against backups the previous two weeks, he threw two interceptions — one for a touchdown — and did little to show he should play ahead of Leftwich once the regular season starts.
"Rest assured there was enough error to go around for all of us," Tomlin said, refusing to single out Dixon for his mistakes.
—Charlie Batch has played less than any other quarterback, yet has looked sharper than any of the four except for Roethlisberger. The Steelers' worry is Batch's inability to stay healthy; he's thrown only two passes since 2007.
Tomlin could use the Carolina game to get Leftwich valuable and much-needed time with the starters, but the front-line players customarily play only a series or two to avoid the risk of injury so close to the start of the season.
"We are going to play," Tomlin said. "We are not going to play as much as we did last (Sunday) night, but we are going to play."
What Tomlin isn't ready to say is who will play. Or for how long. Or when he expects Roethlisberger to be back.
Roethlisberger and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell are expected to meet Friday in New York, and the Steelers are hoping the commissioner will decide that day to reduce the quarterback's punishment.
Earlier this month, Goodell said the quarterback has gone "above and beyond" what the league has asked him to do since being suspended for his misbehavior in a Georgia bar, where he was accused of — but not charged with — sexually assaulting a 20-year-old college student. Before he could resume working out with the Steelers last spring, Roethlisberger went through an extensive evaluation process that neither Roethlisberger nor the league has detailed.
The NFL also hasn't said what Roethlisberger can do during his suspension, but he is expected to remain in game shape by throwing regularly to receivers — some of whom might be free agents looking for jobs — and working with a coach who isn't employed by the team. He can have no contact with the Steelers, except for any medical-related issues.
-- Alan Robinson
Harrison's hit on Orton sends scare into Broncos
DENVER (AP) — Tim Tebow's ill-fated dart into the end zone earlier this month sparked quite the conversation among his devotees and his haters alike: Can the former Florida star survive in the NFL if he doesn't tone down his bruising running style?
Kyle Orton, for one, was squarely in his corner. The Denver Broncos' starting quarterback said he'd have done the exact same thing as Tebow did when he dashed for the goal line on the final play of his pro debut even though two defenders rendered the rookie a human sandwich with bruised ribs.
"Try to score every play that you can," Orton said. "And if that's the option, then that's what you've got to do."
Even though it's the preseason, where stats don't count but the aches hurt just the same.
So, it was no surprise Sunday night when Orton found himself as the last line of defense as Pittsburgh linebacker James Harrison was rumbling downfield after picking up a fumble that would be overturned.
Harrison saw Orton go low for the tackle along the sideline and he put his helmet down and hit Orton head on, leaving the quarterback shaken, the Broncos miffed and their fans wondering if this summer-long injury epidemic had claimed yet another key starter.
"I don't know if I went after him or he went after me," Orton said. "You have to try to save a touchdown and took a pretty decent shot, yeah."
Orton said that while he only had the wind knocked out him, it was obvious that Harrison went down to meet him head on, and Broncos coach Josh McDaniels stopped just short of calling Harrison's hit a cheap shot.
"It kind of looked like Harrison knew he was going to go low and then he took the liberty to go ahead and go after the quarterback," McDaniels said.
That's just football, Harrison countered.
"I play aggressively," he said. "I was going to the ground and wanted to get as many yards as I could."
As it turns out, it was all for naught as the officials quickly huddled and ruled it an incomplete pass.
Brady Quinn came in for one snap, was sacked on a blitz and the Broncos punted. When Denver got the ball back, Orton was under center again, much to the relief of the Broncos and their fluttered fan base.
As ballyhooed as their arrivals were this spring, neither Tebow nor Quinn look anywhere near ready to take over Denver's offense if Orton gets hurt.
Judging by the rotation and their performances Thursday night, it appears that Tebow has moved up in the pecking order ahead of Quinn.
Tebow was erratic: he telegraphed an interception but came back to drive Denver 74 yards on five plays for a 3-yard touchdown strike to fellow rookie Eric Decker,
"Just up and down out there," Tebow said. "Some good things, some bad things — and a lot of things I've got to go work on and get a lot better at."
One thing he did much better this time was stay in the pocket. He didn't scramble at all in completing half of his 10 passes for 72 yards.
For the first time since Denver made him a surprise first-round pick in the draft, Tebow looked like a bona fide NFL pocket passer Thursday night.
"Trying to be," Tebow said. "Just trying to do what I'm asked."
"We're not calling plays for him to run the ball. That's just the bottom line," McDaniels said. "When he went in there, we wanted him to throw the ball from the pocket, we wanted to do some things and test him, see how he did, see how he handled it and none of the things that we were doing were designed scrambles or designed runs.
"And I told him, too, if he scrambles again, get down, you know? That would be better for all of us."
While Tebow looked a lot better, Quinn appeared stuck in neutral, although he was playing with the second- and third-stringers when he went just 1-for-2 for 2 yards in mop-up duty against the Steelers.
"I may not always look statistically good," said Quinn, who insisted he was nevertheless making progress in McDaniels' intricate offense.
Still, he might have already been supplanted by Tebow as Orton's primary backup."It's honestly something I'm not focusing on," said Quinn, who's instead looking to make an impression with much more playing time in the preseason finale at Minnesota on Thursday night.
-- Arnie Stapleton
Raiders' QB returns to practice
ALAMEDA, Calif. (AP) — Oakland Raiders quarterback Jason Campbell is practicing again. Whether he'll play in Thursday's preseason finale is uncertain.
Campbell worked out Monday for the first time since being carted off the field during a preseason loss to San Francisco on Saturday. He appeared fine during a light 90-minute workout Monday in no pads and showed no lingering effects from the stinger he suffered after being hit by 49ers linebacker Travis LaBoy in the second quarter. Campbell's right wrist, which he injured on the previous series and was more of a concern for the Raiders, also appeared fine.
"He did everything we need to do in practice," Oakland coach Tom Cable said. "I knew after the game that he would be all right, so it was just a matter of him going back to work."
Cable's optimistic viewpoint was in stark contrast to Saturday, when the team and its fans held their collective breath after Campbell went down. He remained prone on the turf for 5 minutes before being helped to his feet and being placed in a cart.
The 28-year-old, acquired from Washington in the offseason to replace JaMarcus Russell as Oakland's starting quarterback, underwent an MRI test on his wrist Sunday. He will likely get checked out again later this week before the Raiders determine if he'll play against the Seattle Seahawks on Thursday night.
"Don't know that yet and it has nothing to do with injuries," Cable said. "It has to do with what we're going to do with our team. We're not going to get into it but there's no real (injury) issue there to be worried about."
Cable declined to talk about any of the team's injuries, adopting an in-season stance. That included running back Michael Bush, who was scheduled to undergo surgery on his broken left thumb.
Bush is expected to split the workload in Oakland's backfield with Darren McFadden, who missed the first two preseason games with a hamstring injury. He injured his thumb when he got hit in the hand by a helmet on his final carry against San Francisco.
"We're not going to talk about those things, any of that," Cable said.
Asked if he could just confirm whether Bush even had the surgery, Cable replied "No."
The Raiders did say Bruce Gradkowski, who passed for 202 yards and two touchdowns in the 28-24 loss to San Francisco, will go into the season as Campbell's primary backup.
"Those of us who were around him last year, you kind of know what he's capable of, so I'm not sure that anybody was really surprised," Cable said. "There are some things he could have done better, though, and he'd probably be the first to say that. It's just nice to see him back there. He's definitely strengthened the quarterback position on our team and there's good depth now."
Center Samson Satele returned to practice after missing a week with a sprained ankle. Rookie Jared Veldheer started in Satele's absence after spending training camp at tackle, and may start at center against Seattle.
The Raiders made four roster moves ahead of Tuesday's deadline to reach the 75-player limit. Tight end Tony Stewart, wide receiver Paul Hubbard, guard Allen Smith and fullback Chane Moline were released.
