Wide receiver Sidney Rice is encouraged by his recovery from late-August hip surgery and he is aiming for a Week 8 return.
Rice is a member of the Physically Unable to Perform list, which means he must miss at least the first six games. Rice's injury has a prognosis for a midseason return, but if he heals as fast as he hopes, he'd play against the Patriots on Oct. 31.
Rice on Monday walked without crutches for the first time since the surgery -- with the aid of a pool, of course.
"I feel like I can walk without them anyway on the ground, but it's not the protocol," Rice said. "You've got to follow directions. Hopefully everything will go well. It's feeling great right now. At this point, I'm going to continue to do what they tell me to do and hopefully be out there as soon as possible."
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