Texans wide receiver Andre Johnson will be inactive on Sunday when the Texans face the Jacksonville Jaguars at Reliant Stadium.
Johnson made improvement this week in his rehab from a hamstring injury, but not enough to play for the first time since Week 4.
"I don't feel like I'm ready to play," Johnson said after sitting out of practice on Friday. "I'm not at full-speed yet, and I said I won't put myself out there until I'm able to run full speed. That's pretty much it."
Johnson estimated that his hamstring is at 70-75 percent right now. He hopes to play next week but said "it's a day-by-day thing." The five-time Pro Bowler won't play until he's able to run full-speed without any issues.
"I can run," he said. "I've been running for a couple weeks now. It's just trying to explode and really open up and run full speed. That's the thing I haven't been able to do, so that's something I'll continue to work on and hopefully as the week goes by, it'll get better."
The Texans held Johnson out of practice on Friday so that he could focus on working with the training staff on a side field.
"We made a decision this morning, basically, that he's not quite ready to go," Texans coach Gary Kubiak said. "He's had a really good week… We made a lot of progress this week. He's real close but not yet ready to go, so we got to have other guys continue to step up."
Kubiak said it's tough to keep Johnson out because he's "very, very close." But keeping the rest of the season in mind, the Texans want to be sure their All-Pro receiver is 100 percent before he returns.
Frustrated as he may be, Johnson agrees.
"Who wants to go out on the field and see a half-speed Andre Johnson?" Johnson said. "That's not a good thing. You'll be out there hurting your team when you can have somebody out there who can go out there and give it all they got and make plays for you. I'll just be sitting on the sideline again cheering my guys on.
"Like I said, it's been frustrating because I want to be out there, but at the same time, I'm just working my butt off trying to get back."
Wide receiver Jacoby Jones will start for Johnson opposite Kevin Walter on Sunday. Jones has seven catches for 112 yards and a touchdown in Johnson's absence in the last three games.
Twitter.com/NickScurfield
