New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady was on the field for the team’s morning practice after missing Wednesday’s session due to illness.
Brady reported to team headquarters early Wednesday but after learning he was ill, the Patriots requested he skip practice and avoid spreading the bug to teammates before a weekend trip to Denver for the AFC Championship game.
“I feel great,” Brady said Thursday afternoon.
–Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said wide receiver Percy Harvin was not cleared to practice Thursday as the team prepared for Sunday’s NFC Championship game against the San Francisco 49ers.
Harvin is going through the league’s concussion protocol and it is unclear if he will be ready this week. He continues to recover from a concussion he suffered during last weekend’s 23-15 playoff victory over the New Orleans Saints.
–Minnesota Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer is near deals with veteran coaches George Edwards and Norv Turner who will become his top coordinators.
Edwards, the Miami Dolphins linebackers coach who worked with Zimmer in Dallas under Bill Parcells, is in line to be the Vikings’ defensive coordinator. Another former Cowboys assistant, Norv Turner, is reportedly closing in on a deal to become Zimmer’s offensive coordinator.
Turner, a well-respected quarterback tutor, would be making a lateral move from the same position with the Cleveland Browns, a franchise that hasn’t yet named a replacement for Rob Chudzinski.
–The Washington Redskins named Kirk Olivadotti as inside linebackers coach and retained Jacob Burney as defensive line coach and Raheem Morris as defensive backs coach, the team announced Thursday.
Olivadotti, 40, returns to the Redskins — with whom he spent 11 NFL seasons in various capacities from 2000-10 — after three years coaching inside linebackers at the University of Georgia from 2011-13. Olivadotti is one of 11 members of the Redskins’ assistant coach honor roll, which recognizes coaches with at least 10 seasons of service as an assistant in Washington.
Burney, 54, is entering his fifth season as the Redskins’ defensive line coach in 2014. He joined the Redskins on Jan. 19, 2010. Morris, 37, will return for his third season in Washington as the team’s defensive backs coach.
–Two-time All-Pro defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh and the Detroit Lions are outlining parameters of a new contract.
Suh has two years remaining on his five-year, $64 million rookie contract as the No. 2 overall pick in 2010. He is regarded as one of the best defensive linemen in the NFL and he’s also the most expensive in 2014. Suh’s $22.4 salary cap figure is the highest in the league for 2014 based on current contracts. It jumps even higher — to $25.7 million — in 2015.
–Indianapolis Colts general manager Ryan Grigson said Thursday that the organization still believes in running back Trent Richardson.
The Colts acquired Richardson for a 2014 first-round pick from the Cleveland Browns. But Richardson didn’t produce, and Donald Brown replaced Ahmad Bradshaw as the Colts’ starter when Bradshaw went down with a neck injury. The pick sent to the Browns is No. 26 overall.
“He’s going to have his detractors because of course you want him to come in and set the world on fire,” Grigson said. “But he played a valuable role for us this year. It was very economically wise as a franchise to make the move, given where we are going with the run game. We are happy with Trent.”
–Carolina’s Ron Rivera, who led the Panthers to a 12-4 record and the NFC South title, is the 2013 Coach of the Year based on voting by the Professional Football Writers of America
Kansas City general manager John Dorsey, who made strategic moves to mold the Chiefs into a playoff team in his first season at the helm, is the 2013 Executive of the Year.
And former San Diego offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt, now head coach in Tennessee after helping rejuvenate the career of quarterback Philip Rivers, is the 2013 Assistant Coach of the Year.
–New York Jets coach Rex Ryan reached an agreement on a multiyear contract extension, the team confirmed Thursday.
Ryan had one year remaining on a deal he reworked in 2010, worth about $3 million annually. Ryan’s new contract keeps him in New York at least through the 2016 season, according to ESPN.
Ryan, 51, has gone 42-38 since his arrival to New York in 2009, not including a 4-2 record in the postseason. Ryan made the AFC Championship in his first two seasons but he failed to take the Jets to the playoffs in the past three seasons.
–Chip Kelly, on the one-year anniversary of being named head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles, was named Pro Football Coach of the Year by the Maxwell Football Club on Thursday.
The Maxwell Club, whose president is Ron Jaworski, is Philadelphia-based. In his first year, Kelly oversaw a quarterback competition, won 10 games and the NFC East title and got his first taste of the NFL playoffs.
–The Buffalo Bills added Jeff Hafley to the coaching staff as a defensive assistant, the team announced Thursday.
Hafley will enter his third season in the NFL coaching ranks in 2014 after spending the previous two years with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, including 2013 as the team’s safeties coach.
Prior to entering the NFL, Hafley spent 11 years on the collegiate sideline with coaching stints at Worcester Polytechnic University (2001), University of Albany (2002-05), University of Pittsburgh (2006-10) and Rutgers University (2011).
–Pictures posted by wide receiver Davone Bess to his Twitter account prompted the Cleveland Browns to investigate the matter.
Bess (@davonebess) posted an image of what appears to be marijuana, indicates he was watching “Cocaine Cowboys” on illegal drug use in the 1980s and wrote the message “We da real dons!”
Bess was permitted to return home to Oakland for the final two weeks of the regular season with what the Browns described as a “serious family matter.”