After their final full practice leading up to Sunday's game at Washington, Green Bay Packers GM/Head Coach Mike Sherman announced that nearly everyone who had appeared on the team's injury report during the week had returned to practice Friday.
Quarterback Brett Favre (sprained hand), running back Ahman Green (sore Achilles), cornerback Al Harris (knee sprain), defensive end Aaron Kampman (sprained ankle), and guard Marco Rivera (sprained ankle) were all back on the practice field after missing Wednesday and Thursday's workouts.
The one player who has been unable to give it a go in practice all week, Friday included, has been free safety and defensive leader Darren Sharper. Sharper left the Packers' game against the Dallas Cowboys last Sunday with a sprained ligament in his knee. Friday, the defensive back worked out with the team's trainers, testing the knee's stability and his ability to move around.
Sherman stated in his Friday press conference that he will wait until Sunday to determine whether or not the eight-year veteran will be in the lineup against the Redskins.
Sharper will be involved in that decision as well, according to him.
"It's also going to be up to me," said Sharper. "I'm not going to go out and try to be Superman. If it's not right, I'm not going to play because the game is fast. If you're not able to move up to speed, you'll not only hurt yourself, but you'll hurt your team.
"We've got two more days - two more good nights of rest, and then we'll see how it feels."
If Sharper's knee doesn't improve to the point to where he'll be able to take his place in the middle of the secondary Sunday, Bhawoh Jue will step into the starting lineup for the second time this season.
Jue opened the Tennessee game in fellow safety Mark Roman's place when Roman was limited by a knee injury a few weeks back. Jue, a fourth-year veteran, took over Sharper's spot last week and made seven tackles over the final three quarters of play.
Jue feels he will be even more prepared if he is called on again this week, as will rookie cornerback Joey Thomas, in case he's needed to fill in for Harris as he did against Dallas.
"The good thing is that I got to get some work at safety this week and "Rook" got to get some work over in the slot," said Jue. "Last week we were just doing it. "Rook" hadn't played in the slot since he got here in training camp, so we had to do it on the fly. Now we actually have had some work doing it, I think we'll be pretty good."
Harris participated in Friday's practice, but left all questions regarding his injury up to Coach Sherman.
On the offensive side of the ball, it appears that Sherman, in his third week calling the plays, will have his full complement of players. Although Donald Driver missed Friday's practice after having his foot stepped on a day previous, the coach believes that everyone will be ready on offense, including his ironman quarterback Favre.
Sherman was wowed by Favre's precision performance Friday despite not having taken any snaps the previous two days due to his sprained hand.
"It's amazing that he had an exceptional workout," Sherman said. "It stung him a little bit, but he practiced very well. I don't know if he threw an incompletion.
"He took snaps, did the whole thing."
Favre looks to be protected by his Pro Bowl right guard Rivera as well Sunday, as the lineman put in a full day's work Friday for the first time since spraining his ankle early in the team's win last weekend.
"I think I'm pretty good - I'm ready to go," said Rivera. "It's up to Coach to make the last call, but I think I showed enough today that he'll say yes.
"It's just a little tender right now. We'll get in one more treatment and be pretty good for the game."
