Wide receiver Sidney Rice remains on the physically unable to perform list because of a hip injury, but he increased his rehab work on Monday.
Rice, who does his conditioning work on a side field, began making cuts for the first time in training camp. Rice said straight-line running poses no problems so they went to the next phase in his rehab.
"It's getting better," Rice said. "I did a little direction stuff today and going to see how it feels tomorrow. Continue to take it one day at a time."
Rice maintains that he doesn't have a timetable for when he'll return, calling it "day by day." "It would be great to play in a preseason game," he said. "Preseason is not all bad like everybody thinks it is. You need that rhythm, you need to get the timing right with your quarterback, pick up protections and things like that and you want to be on the same page with your teammates." Rice said he's experienced "a couple of setbacks" but overall he feels like he's making progress. He declined to put a percentage on how he feels physically. "Today was the first day we did some of the cutting stuff," he said. "The straight line is not bad at all. It's cutting, bending, coming in and out of breaks. It felt pretty good. I've just got to see how my body reacts to it." Here are a few notes from practice:
- Brad Childress did not have an update on Brett Favre. He said there has been no recent communication between the two sides.
- Childress said the team had "no interest" in quarterback Jeff Garcia, whose father reportedly said the Vikings called his son as a backup plan in case Favre doesn't play. "No, no," Childress said. "Anybody can say anything now and get it in front of people. My answer is no. No interest."
- Percy Harvin was not made available to media after practice. He is scheduled to talk later this week. Judd will have a blog post on Harvin and reaction from the Vikings in a while.
- Jaymar Johnson (hand) and John Sullivan (calf) did not practice. Johnson had his left hand wrapped.
- Childress said cornerback Cedric Griffin is progressing "rapidly" in his recovery from ACL surgery. Griffin stays after practice and does individual drills with defensive backs coach Joe Woods.
