NFL Capsules - AFC: Titans lineman helping sick child
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee defensive end Eric Bakhtiari pulls his flowing brown hair first into one ponytail, then a second before pulling a skull cap over his head to squeeze on his helmet. With everything knotted up on his head, that helmet fits pretty tight.
Bakhtiari hasn’t been growing his hair for fashion or religious motivation. He’s going long for a purpose — to make a big donation to Locks of Love to help a cancer patient.
Credit for steering Bakhtiari to Locks of Love goes to Jamal Williams, Bakhtiari’s teammate two years ago with the San Diego Chargers. Bakhtiari had decided to quit visiting the barber for a while when Williams suggested Locks of Love.
Now his goal is to cut his hair at the end of this season.
"He really convinced me to do it," Bakhtiari said. "Then my best friend from high school, she actually has bone marrow cancer. She lost all of her hair, and she doesn’t want mine. She would take it, but in order to get it into a wig it would be difficult. She wants it to go to someone less fortunate."
Hair care has been relatively easy for the 6-foot-3, 250-pound lineman until this year.
A native of Burlingame, Calif., Bakhtiari was as an undrafted free agent out of San Diego in 2008 and spent two weeks on the Chargers’ practice squad before being released and signed by San Francisco for the rest of the season.
The Chargers re-signed Bakhtiari in January 2009 only to waive him at the end of the preseason. He spent two weeks with Tampa Bay’s practice squad before the Titans signed him to their practice squad in November. When tackle Jason Jones was put on injured reserve, Bakhtiari got the promotion and had six special teams tackles in his first three career games.
Now he’s busy sweating during a Tennessee training camp with a heat index regularly hovering at or above 100 degrees. The humidity curls up his hair that now measures 12 inches — long enough that pulling a brush all the way through is nearly impossible with muscled biceps and shoulders.
"I’m not flexible enough to get it all the way through there," Bakhtiari said with a grin. "It’s difficult now in training camp. It’s under a helmet most times but mostly it’s always in a ponytail."
Actually, he’s using the double ponytail because it’s a little harder to fit all that hair under the helmet with the added bonus of stability.
"It kind of keeps my helmet there, kind of like keeps it more in place," he said.
Bakhtiari’s mother gave him a big assist to help him care for all that hair so his donation would be in good shape when the time comes to lop it off.
"When she came out, she saw I was using some like crappy two-in-one shampoo and conditioner. She said, ‘Uh-uh.’ She went to a salon and got me nice shampoo and some real nice conditioner, some leave-in (conditioner), some reconditioning mess. All that stuff," Bakhtiari said.
Sometimes on special occasions, Bakhtiari will let his hair down. Don’t even ask the question if he’s ever been mistaken for a woman, not with those broad shoulders. He also hasn’t had teammates kid him since his rookie days when his hair was in what he called an awkward stage .
His response? He’d just tell him his reasons for having long hair.
"Once it got to a certain length, it’s almost like a fashion thing. There’s a rap song now Lil Wayne sings ... ‘Long hair don’t care.’ A lot of guys they don’t understand, I’ll say that back to them," Bakhtiari said.
His mission grew even more personal this offseason when he visited his old friend in the hospital at Stanford University. She was in isolation, requiring him to wash carefully and wear scrubs and a mask to visit her. She’s out of isolation now.
Bakhtiari hasn’t contacted anyone with Locks of Love just yet, only checking out the nonprofit group’s website to see how long his hair must be before the donation can be made to children suffering from long-term medical hair loss from a variety of diseases.
He will check with the group before cutting his hair just to make sure he doesn’t make a mistake before finishing off this mission. That will be at the end of the 2010 season.
"I’m hoping I make this team, and we win the Super Bowl. Then I’ll give away Super Bowl hair and make a cancer patient a champion," Bakhtiari said.
Jets bond in camp after busy offseason of changes
CORTLAND, N.Y. (AP) — Brian Jackson never had a chance once Bart Scott got his hands on the yellow rope.
The rookie cornerback was tied to a goal post by Scott and a few of his teammates at the end of the New York Jets’ morning practice Thursday, covered in heat balm and drenched with Gatorade. Some may call it rookie hazing, others may say it’s downright mean.
For the Jets, it was just a little more team bonding.
"I haven’t talked to Brian yet, but I heard he’s taking it as a personal thing, which is unfortunate," coach Rex Ryan said with a grin. "I’ll get a chance to talk to him."
Jackson, who has impressed Ryan and the staff during camp, apparently talked back to one of the assistant coaches. Bad move, rookie. And the NFL Films crew caught it all for HBO’s "Hard Knocks."
"I’ve seen way worse than that," Ryan said. "We’ve all seen the Tim Tebow haircut."
The Jets have spent the last few weeks at SUNY Cortland learning more about each other, and trying to build the chemistry that was such a large part of the team’s run to the AFC championship game last season.
"I think off the field has been some of our biggest improvements," quarterback Mark Sanchez said. "On the field, that will speak for itself when the season starts."
They planned to spend their final night in Cortland entertaining themselves with the rookie talent show, a Jeopardy game, the King Ugly contest — selecting the ugliest person on the team — and even a performance by a magician.
"A lot of people could see, especially with ‘Hard Knocks’ going on, how close our team is," Sanchez said, "how much fun we have, how serious we are when it’s time to get to work and how important we know our goals are and how focused we are when we get on the field."
After a busy offseason in which several popular players were released or traded — Thomas Jones, Alan Faneca, Leon Washington, Jay Feely, Kerry Rhodes — and plenty of new faces were brought in, the Jets used training camp in Cortland as a bonding session.
They needed it, too. For a team with Super Bowl hopes, many fans and media were concerned the personnel changes could disrupt the locker room. Instead, the Jets insist their newest teammates — LaDainian Tomlinson, Santonio Holmes, Antonio Cromartie and Jason Taylor, to name a few — have endeared themselves to the team. They’re Jets now, they’ve all said separately, and put whatever allegiances they previously had in the past.
"Off the field, I feel like we’ve grown as friends, as teammates, as family," Sanchez said. "That transcends football. We don’t want to be just football players and show up to work. We show up for fun, and show up to have a really good time and hopefully win."
Ryan said he will release the team after their activities Thursday night and give them a later curfew. The Jets will have a walkthrough Friday and then break camp before playing at Carolina on Saturday night.
"We don’t care what they do," Ryan said. "They can have a bible study, go drink beer, go shoot pool, go to a movie, but you’ve got to do something with a teammate. That’s the only thing we ask for this last night."
Defensive tackle Kris Jenkins briefly considered retirement in the offseason while rehabilitating from a torn knee ligament. He acknowledged feeling revitalized this summer, his 10th in the NFL, when the dog days of camp were also good days.
"You come out here for the work," Jenkins said. "It’s nothing else. You need to work. You need the reps. You need to sweat."
Jenkins added that the team did a good job of working hard together, something Ryan insisted would be the case — despite all the personnel changes. The coach used last season as an example of how important team bonding is, when the Jets had two three-game losing streaks and still made the playoffs.
"I think that speaks to the kinds of players we have, the kind of locker room we have and how the guys feel about each other," Ryan said. "This is a new year, but I think this is a close football team."
Notes: Ryan said the Jets’ starters will likely play for about a quarter against Carolina. They played an entire half in the preseason opener against the Giants on Monday night. ... The Jets signed LB Boris Lee and waived P T.J. Conley, who was competing with Steve Weatherford for the starting job.
-- Dennis Waszak Jr.
Tomlin not saying if Roethlisberger will start
LATROBE, Pa. (AP) — The Pittsburgh Steelers are keeping their starting quarterback a secret. Again.
Ben Roethlisberger will play in Saturday night’s exhibition against the New York Giants — his first game action since drawing a six-game suspension — but coach Mike Tomlin wouldn’t say Thursday if he will start.
A week ago, Tomlin also didn’t announce his starter in advance before Byron Leftwich played into the second quarter of a 23-7 victory over the Lions. Roethlisberger didn’t play, but Tomlin said earlier this week he would get in against the Giants.
"It’s not finalized of yet, no," Tomlin said. "Similar to last week, some of those decisions are made last minute in the preseason. That’s just how it goes."
Roethlisberger worked with the starting offense most of this week at training camp, an indication he will start. The Steelers want Roethlisberger to get some work during the preseason because he cannot play or practice with the team once his suspension begins. His punishment is expected to be cut to four games before the season starts.
Tomlin plans to play the starters for 24 snaps, which should take them into the second quarter. Last week, Tomlin said the starting quarterback would get only eight to 12 snaps, but Leftwich wound up taking twice that amount. Tomlin didn’t say if Leftwich would play against New York.
Tomlin wants to see more of former Bills lineman Jonathan Scott at right tackle. That might be a sign that recently signed Flozell Adams is having difficulty making the adjustment from left tackle, the position he played for 13 seasons, to right tackle. Adams allowed a sack against Detroit.
"We just want to see Jonathan Scott," Tomlin said. "We’ve got some guys that are working, so we want to see them."
Punter Daniel Sepulveda will kick off, a chore normally handled by kicker Jeff Reed. Rookie wide receiver Antonio Brown will return kicks a week after catching a touchdown pass against Detroit. Outside linebacker Jason Worilds, a second round draft pick, will play after sitting out against Detroit because of an injury.
Rookie running back Jonathan Dwyer isn’t expected to play because of a shoulder injury, the latest problem that’s sidelined him. The sixth-round draft pick was expected to compete to be the backup to Rashard Mendenhall, but has constantly missed practice.
"The reality is he’s not on the field, so he’s not helping himself," Tomlin said.
The Steelers are all but wrapped up with camp — only a morning walkthrough on Friday remains — and Tomlin is hoping they don’t lose focus once they return to their practice facility in Pittsburgh next week.
"We’re going to lose some of the things that come with training camp, but we are still very much in the development of our football team. Our goals and focus remain the same. We need to determine who are the 53 (players on the season-opening roster) and the roles within them," he said.
Browns' Haden a confident corner
BEREA, Ohio (AP) — Browns cornerback Joe Haden oozes confidence from every pore. It trickles from the ear holes in his orange helmet and seeps through his No. 23 jersey whether he's walking, running or simply standing and talking about his first NFL training camp.
He's a rookie — a rare one.
There's a swagger about the former Florida standout, a don't-mess-with-me bravado that doesn't come across as cocky but self-assured.
"You have to be confident playing corner," Haden said Thursday after the Browns wrapped up their morning practice. "D-backs just have that naturally."
It's just one of Haden's many gifts. The No. 7 overall selection in April's draft, he entered the league with questions about his speed after he posted a disappointing time in the 40-yard dash at the college scouting combine in Indianapolis.
No one is doubting his speed now. Haden has hit the ground at full stride with the Browns. He's proving to be a quick study on and off the field.
Because of an injury to Eric Wright, Haden started at left corner in Cleveland's exhibition opener in Green Bay last week. Against one of the league's top offenses, Haden more than held his own in his pro debut, finishing with three tackles and defending one pass.
Haden has a ways to go, but he has impressed Cleveland's coaching staff with his early body of work.
"I like a lot of what I'm seeing," coach Eric Mangini said. "The real value there is there's a lot to coach off of. He is playing against a higher level of competition more consistently. His experience last week against Green Bay's offense was a great way to start because you're starting fast against one of the best offensives in the NFL."
Haden could challenge Wright for the No. 1 job or he may start alongside his close friend if Sheldon Brown is dropped back to safety. No matter, Haden will be on the field this season for the Browns — a lot.
Although he hasn't needed long to make an impact, hardly a minute goes by that Haden isn't reminded by one of his teammates or coaches that this is his first year.
"I hear it every day," he said. "'Rook this, rook that. Rook, get me some seeds.' That's the main thing."
Yep, one of Haden's first duties with the Browns has been bringing packets of sunflower seeds to meetings for his teammates.
"Still the seed man," he said, smiling.
Haden believes playing for the Gators and against other schools in the talent-rich SEC may have given him an advantage over other first-year players. Not only does that conference have some of the nation's top players, the league boasts some of the fleetest as well.
"The NFL is fast, but the SEC might be a little bit faster sometimes," Haden said without batting an eye. "The speed thing is something that has helped me out a whole lot."
He's been getting some tutoring, too.
Haden has been leaning on Wright and Brown for advice. They've been showing him the daily dos and don'ts of playing cornerback, possibly the most challenging position in pro football.
"They're helping me out a whole lot," Haden said. "Sheldon has so much experience and knowledge. He talks a lot about not letting plays get to you. You want every play to be your best play, but Sheldon's says, 'Joe don't worry about it. Each practice just come out here and try to get better but some days are going to be a whole lot better than others. Just take what the coaches say and give it your best effort.'"
Haden and Wright have a growing bond, one that could be tested by competition and the depth chart. Haden, though, won't allow his friendship to get in the way of accelerating his career.
"If you're going to be nice to somebody or mean to somebody it's not going to help you at all," he said. "If you are making plays, you're going to start. If you're not, then you're not. Off the field, me and him are really cool. On the field, you gotta do what you gotta do to play.
"The better man is going to play."
Haden is far from a finished product. He's struggling to learn every facet of Cleveland's 3-4 system. Unlike in college, where he was only required to know his responsibilities and those of the secondary, the Browns want him to understand where every player should be on every snap.
On top of that, Haden is cramming to learn various offensive formations, which will change from week to week. It's much easier to stop a wide receiver running a pass route if you can anticipate his next move.
Haden is listening and learning.
"I feel like I'm getting a whole lot better every day," he said, "and the coaches keep telling me to just keep improving."
Notes: Mangini said the first teams will play through the first half of Saturday's home exhibition against St. Louis. QB Jake Delhomme only played one series last week against the Packers. ... Rookie wide receiver Carlton Mitchell appeared to injure his left shoulder during the morning session. The team did not have an update on his condition.
-- Tom Withers
Chiefs QB Cassel making strides
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (AP) — Matt Cassel may be known some day as more than the only quarterback to start a game in the NFL without starting in college or high school.
Saturday night’s exhibition outing at Tampa Bay will be his next good test, but Kansas City coaches have been greatly encouraged with the poise, accuracy and hard work their second-year man has been putting on display in grueling, 100-degree temperatures at training camp.
In a night practice this week, he uncorked several thread-the-needle passes, the kind he rarely showed before.
He’s also had some mediocre practices since the Chiefs opened camp in late July. But overall, Cassel has looked much sharper than the first-year starter who hit 55 percent and threw one interception for every touchdown pass (16) a year ago.
"I think last night he made a bunch of real good throws, in tight spots," Haley said. "Now I’ve got a quarterback who appears to be running the operation well, efficiently. He’s throwing the ball where it’s supposed to go generally. Those are all signs of progress for this guy."
In all fairness to Cassel, it needs to be pointed out that his receivers led the NFL with a horrific 48 dropped passes. But accuracy was only one of his issues in 2009 when the Chiefs went 4-12 with Haley doing triple-duty as quarterback coach, offensive coordinator and rookie head coach.
Now Haley is "only" head coach. In to run the offense is Charlie Weis. And the former Patriots offensive coordinator and Notre Dame head coach has made Cassel his top priority.
"I watched all the plays from last year," Weis said. "I wanted to make sure I knew exactly what I was getting because the first thing I wanted to do was help fix the quarterback."
Fix the quarterback?
Told of his coordinator’s statement, Cassel grinned sheepishly.
"That’s interesting," he said. "Every coach comes in every offseason, and they take little nuances they want to work on each and every offseason. If they’re not here to try to fix something, whether it’s the running backs coach or the receivers coach, then they’re probably not doing their job."
A yen for hard work and a yearning to be as good as he can possibly be have been Cassel hallmarks since he came over in a trade from New England following the 2008 season. He welcomes special attention from tough taskmasters like Weis and Haley.
"I think there’s nobody that pushes you harder than you push yourself," Cassel said. "If you’re at this level, you better be able to push yourself every day. I like coach Weis and coach Haley grinding me, holding me accountable, getting on me every day about different things, whether it’s footwork, whether it’s reads. And so those guys are holding me accountable just as much as I do myself."
Cassel missed the season opener last year with a knee injury, but started the next 15 games and wound up hitting 55 percent of his passes for 2,924 yards. Haley won’t say what percentage he’s looking for this year, but improved accuracy is a must.
"I would say part of his improvement is going to be decision-making, part of his improvement is going to be running the operation, leading his team, and part of it is going to be accuracy," Haley said. "There’s still a lot to work to be done. Make no mistake about that. There’s a lot of little things we’re talking about every day, that I’m talking to him about or Charlie’s talking to him about."
After Tom Brady went down with a season-ending knee injury in New England’s 2008 season opener, Cassel was believed to be the first man to start in the NFL at quarterback after never starting in either college or high school. At USC, he spent four years playing behind two Heisman winners.
So even though he’s been in the league six years, Cassel remains young and inexperienced.
"There are all signs of progress for this guy," said Haley. "I think he cares and he wants to be a part of this being a good team."
-- Doug Tucker
Broncos QB Tebow’s injury raises questions
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — Tim Tebow’s battered ribs are casting doubt and raising concerns in Denver.
Is the rookie quarterback going to make his home debut with the Broncos on Saturday night after missing two practices this week?
More importantly, will the former Florida star have to alter his physical style of play now that he’s in the bigger, badder NFL?
Coach Josh McDaniels isn’t saying whether Tebow is in or out when the Detroit Lions visit Invesco Field, but he is adamant that Tebow doesn’t have to abandon his reckless abandon.
Tebow was known for running the football at Florida, where he won two national titles and a Heisman Trophy, and he never really had to slide or go out of bounds much in college, where at 6-foot-3 and 245 pounds, he was bigger and stronger than many of his pursuers.
However, he’s still adjusting to the faster pro game and he absorbed some vicious hits in his debut Sunday night at Cincinnati, where he was welcomed to the league by safety Jeromy Miles on a blitz he never saw coming even though it wasn’t on his blind side.
Tebow evidently suffered bruised ribs on the game’s final play when Bengals linebacker Abdul Hodge blasted him on his left side as he scrambled into the end zone for a 7-yard TD and bowled over Kyries Hebert, leaving the safety woozy.
After the game, which Cincinnati won 33-24, Tebow sported a large, nasty red scrape across the lower left side of his back.
He practiced 48 hours later but didn’t do wind sprints and he left the field during warmups Wednesday, then didn’t even come out of the building on Thursday, much to the disappointment of the throngs of Tebowmaniacs attending the Broncos’ final training camp workout that was open to the public.
Tebow, who wasn’t made available to reporters this week, said when camp started that he was eager for the hard hits, and McDaniels isn’t rushing to change Tebow’s running ways.
"Had he not tried to get it in on the last play of the game, I’m sure that would have been a bigger story," McDaniels said Thursday. "So, no. If it’s the first quarter and you get a first down on the scramble, yeah, you try to preserve your body. I think that’s the smartest thing to do. He hasn’t been in that situation yet."
Some hits are unavoidable, others unnecessary, and Tebow will certainly be lectured about preserving his health. But McDaniels disputes the notion that Tebow shouldn’t have gone all out for the end zone for a meaningless touchdown in a game that didn’t really matter.
"To judge him on what happened the other night in terms of being reckless I would say is very unfair," McDaniels said. "What he did the other night I hope all of our guys would have done, no matter who it was. Yeah, it’s part of his game. But I’m sure he’ll learn either the easy way or the hard way that you want to stay in this league as long as you can and we’ll help him do that."
In an interview with The Associated Press later Thursday, McDaniels said Tebow’s aggressive style is what gives him a chance to succeed in the NFL and he won’t try to coach that out of him.
"I think that’s part of his toughness. Do we expect him to try to take care of his body and try to protect himself if that’s at all possible and it’s not worth the risk? Yeah," McDaniels said. "But I think if there’s certain situations like there was the other night where it’s the last play of the game, I think that most quarterbacks would try to get themselves in the end zone.
"That’s part of his style and that’s part of what made him great in college and it’s probably what will make him a good player — if that’s what he becomes in this league."
Asked if he felt defenders might try to hit Tebow harder because of his celebrity status that’s almost unheard of for a rookie and certainly unparalleled for a No. 3 quarterback, McDaniels had his doubts that tacklers would ratchet it up for anybody, much less Tebow.
"They should probably be careful if they do that. I think the other guy got knocked out," McDaniels said. "You know, he’s a big guy. He’s 245 pounds. He can take care of himself."
Asked about Tebow’s status for Saturday night, McDaniels demurred.
"There’s a chance that a lot of those guys that aren’t out here won’t play," McDaniels said. "We are just going to see in the next 24 to 36 hours how all of them respond to the treatment they are getting. ... We are not going to worry about trying to hurry anybody back for this game."
Before the extent of Tebow’s injury was realized, McDaniels said he planned to play him most of the second half against Detroit. But Tebow might have to wait until the Pittsburgh game on Aug. 29, when McDaniels was planning to go with his starters, including Kyle Orton, most of the way and his primary backups, Brady Quinn among them, in the fourth quarter.
That means Tebow might not play again until the preseason finale at Minnesota on Sept. 2, denying Broncos fans a chance of seeing him in action at Invesco Field unless he earns playing time in the regular season.
NOTES: The Broncos announced on Twitter that they had released OL Dustin Fry. They signed free agent DL Jason Hunter, a fifth-year pro who played in Green Bay and Detroit.
-- Arnie Stapleton
Raiders counting heavily on LT Mario Henderson
NAPA, Calif. (AP) — When Mario Henderson gets beat in a pass-blocking drill at practice for the Oakland Raiders, he immediately hits the ground for his punishment.
With coach Tom Cable watching closely, Henderson starts doing push-up after push-up in hopes of building the consistency needed to succeed in the NFL.
"He's got a thing where if there is something I need to correct in my sets, I have to do 50 push-ups," Henderson said. "It's tough, man. After I do that, my sets are straight. It's no longer just a regular pass — now I am thinking if I don't do this right, it's 50 more push-ups. They are tough to do in the middle of a practice. We just started doing it this year and it's going to help me to become better."
Getting Henderson to play better is a big part of improving an offense that struggled mightily last season. Henderson allowed an NFL-worst 10.5 sacks last season, according to STATS LLC, and was part of a unit that slipped from sixth to 21st in the league running the ball from 2007 to '09.
With Oakland bringing back four of the five starters from that disappointing line — midseason pickup Langston Walker replaces Cornell Green at right tackle — the Raiders are counting on Henderson to return to his late 2008 form this season.
Cable is Oakland's former offensive line coach and still spends much of his time at practice with his former pupils. He is pleased with what he has seen from Henderson so far this summer in terms of run blocking but wants him to get more consistent with his footwork in passing situations.
"I just want to clean that up, if we can clean that up I think we can get him back where he was playing there for awhile," Cable said.
When it comes to the passing game in the modern NFL, a solid left tackle may be only second in importance to good quarterback play.
The Raiders thought Henderson could provide that last season after he ended the 2008 campaign by keeping Richard Seymour, Mario Williams and Gaines Adams without a sack and did not commit a penalty as Oakland won two of its final three games that year.
That performance was a far cry from the ones turned in by the raw player who entered the league as a third-round pick out of Florida State in 2007 and the one who was mocked by former coach Lane Kiffin during training camp in 2008.
Henderson believes the push-ups will help make him more consistent and get him off the rollercoaster ride he has been on during his three-year career.
"It gets you into good habits and when you are playing tackle, playing well has to become a habit," he said. "I have to not even think about it, to get to a certain spot with my hands in the right place."
Dallas got solid play from the offensive line in the exhibition opener against Dallas, allowing only one sack — which came from up the middle, not outside against Henderson — and averaging 4.6 yards per carry.
Henderson figures to get another good test on Saturday when he likely will match up against Chicago star end Julius Peppers.
"He's made some improvements here this week," Cable said of Henderson. "I'm kind of excited, and I think he will be too to match up with Peppers a little bit in the game."
Henderson was hurt last year by injuries to left guard Robert Gallery. With Gallery missing 10 games because of various injuries, Henderson did not have his usual security blanket on the inside.
The rotating guards led to some communication problems on the line, which have been less of a problem now that Gallery is healthy.
"With Robert I can just look at him or he can look at me. You can nod. It works a lot better like that sometimes than when you have a different guy," Henderson said. "So that's kind of good. I know how much you can trust me and I know how much I can trust him on some plays."
Henderson also believes his blocking will improve because of a change at quarterback from JaMarcus Russell to Jason Campbell. Russell was sacked on 11.8 percent of his pass plays last season, the most in the NFL. The rate dropped to 6.2 percent with Oakland's other quarterbacks.
"Not to bad talk JaMarcus or anything like that, but there is more definition with Jason," Henderson said. "If he says he is dropping back three steps, it's going to be three. If he says seven, it's going to be seven. It's not three and then he drops back seven. (Campbell) is good at what he does as far as footwork."
Notes: WR Darrius Heyward-Bey missed his fourth straight practice with what is being called "fatigue." ... Among the players unlikely to play Saturday against the Bears are Heyward-Bey, WR Chaz Schilens (foot), RB Darren McFadden (hamstring), QB Bruce Gradkowski (groin), LB Sam Williams (concussion), CB Chris Johnson (hamstring).
-- Josh Dubow
