Tennessee quarterback Steve McNair should start Sunday against the Oakland Raiders after sitting out a game to rest his sore back. McNair has missed five practices over the last two weeks and didn't play in Sunday's loss in Arizona. Coach Jeff Fisher said Monday the team decided to leave McNair in Nashville for continued treatment and rest. "It really helped him," Fisher said. "He went out and threw today and felt pretty good. It's good to get him back. I would expect he would be able to do some things for us on the practice field on Wednesday."

The back stiffness that has dogged Steve McNair and kept him out of practice entirely this week will keep him out of the lineup at well on Sunday, as the Tennessee Titans will start backup Billy Volek instead. A six-year veteran, Volek is no stranger to the starting lineup or to getting a late notice that he will replace McNair as the starter. Regarded as one of the NFL's premier No. 2 quarterbacks, Volek started eight games in 2004 while McNair was sidelined, and Sunday's game against the Arizona Cardinals will be his 10th career start. Sunday will mark the 11th game that McNair has missed because of injury since the start of the 2003 season.

Steve McNair's status for Sunday's game against the Arizona Cardinals remained uncertain Friday because the Tennessee Titans quarterback was held out of practice with a sore back. It was the first time this season he did not participate in a workout Wednesday, Thursday or Friday. Back pain caused him to sit out Wednesday and he was excused for personal reasons on Thursday. Billy Volek worked the whole week with the first-team offense. "We haven't ruled [McNair] out for the game at this point," said coach Jeff Fisher. "He has been in this situation before. We just felt like an extra day would help. He is much better right now than he was last week."

Running back Jarrett Payton, son of the late Walter Payton, was activated for his first NFL game when the Titans promoted him from the practice squad. Payton went undrafted out of Miami in 2004, but signed with the Titans as a free agent and spent the season on the practice squad. The 6-foot, 220-pouner was allocated to NFL Europe, where he tied for a league-high with seven touchdowns and ranked second with 5.6 yards per carry. But the Titans lost Travis Henry to a four-game suspension for violating the NFL's substance abuse policy, and team officials chose to replace him by promoting Payton and deactivating rookie Damien Nash.