Oft-injured Raiders' receiver, Jacoby Ford, was back at practice today after missing most of camp. This is the second return from injury for Ford. The first return didn't last long and he was back on the shelf after re-aggravating his hamstring.

"Yeah, it was the same thing," said Ford of the re-injured hamstring. "Just kinda came back a little too quick. Just wasn't ready, and it just tightened up on me. They just kinda rested me a little bit."

"Yeah, it definitely works because you start to get your legs back under you, start to get the rhythm back. You don't wanna just come right back the first day and just full go, just to let you at it. I wanted to go do a little more so they kept holding me back, so they definitely doing a good job with that."

Dennis Allen said Ford had looked good ready to go in workouts and was ready ahead of when he had expected he would be.

"Jacoby the other day had a real good day in his rehab process and we felt like he was ready to go and we were able to get him out here," said Allen.

"I think the other day was probably the big test for me," said Ford. " I had two days of rehab back to back and you always wanna put a couple good days back to back of rehab where it doesn't bother you at all. First day it didn't bother me and the other day I was able to do this drill and I was running on the sideline full speed and it never grabbed me at all. I actually opened up so that was a big accomplishment for me to come back. . . [the burst] is definitely back. Before it was kinda hard to accelerate and I was a little bit more timid but now I'm just 100% full go."

With the way he feels now, he hopes to play Friday. He was limited in practice today but sees no reason why by game time on Friday, he shouldn't be back to playing receiver and returning kicks.

"If I play, I'm gonna pretty much do everything," said Ford. "Just get a feel for the game and just get back out there and get back into some contact."

The Raiders are heading into their third preseason game in which the starters will see the most time of any preseason game. It's a good time to see Ford return and get some playing time under his belt before the season. Can't really guard against injuries. If they are going to happen, better to get them out of the way before the season.

If he can return and be injury free, he is a tremendous asset to this team both as a receiver and as a return man.

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