Wide receiver Sidney Rice is expected to make his 2010 debut on Sunday against the Packers after being placed on the Vikings' 53-man roster Saturday.
The move came by Saturday's 3 p.m. deadline and nearly three months after Rice underwent hip surgery that landed him on the physically unable to perform list. Rice also did not take part in training camp because of the hip problem, which was never fully explained. Rice, who had a career-high 83 receptions for 1,312 yards and eight touchdowns last season, started practicing on Nov. 3 and needed to be activated by this coming Wednesday or his season would have been finished. Rice refused to speak to local reporters Friday but he told ESPN's Ed Werder that he would play, adding "I don't think I can go the whole game but I'm going to play as much as I can." The Vikings have made it clear that it would be Rice's decision about whether he would play but the team did apply some not so subtle pressure by leaving the 53rd spot on the roster open since wide receiver Randy Moss was placed on waivers and Rice began practicing. Rice's statement to Werder was interesting because it wasn't consistent with what Rice told reporters two days before the Vikings played the Chicago Bears last week. At that time, Rice said: "When I'm out there on the field I want to play every snap I can. I don't want to be limited. I want to be able to help the team as much as possible. That's another thing. I don't want to hurt the team in any way. We're in a critical position right now. We need all these wins. I don't want to just throw myself out there knowing I can only get 10 plays and we have another receiver down that could have helped the team out a lot more." Perhaps Rice realizes that playing as many plays as he can is a better option to not playing at all.
