The assistant-head-coach-for-offense offer former Vikings coach Mike Tice is expected to accept from Jacksonville Jaguars coach Jack Del Rio should pay him slightly more than $1 million a year. He was paid $1 million this season as head coach of the Vikings. Tice would be the second former NFL head coach on Del Rio's staff. The other is Dave Campo, formerly of the Dallas Cowboys. Tice spent the weekend in Jacksonville with Del Rio.

Barring a physical setback in practice this week, quarterback Byron Leftwich will return to the starting lineup for the Jacksonville Jaguars when they meet New England in a wild-card playoff game on Saturday evening. Sidelined since Nov. 27 with a broken left ankle, Leftwich took virtually all of the snaps with the Jaguars' first-unit offense during practice on Tuesday and proclaimed himself ready to go. Coach Jack Del Rio has stopped short of officially naming Leftwich the starter, but the matter appears academic.