NFL: Jaguars’ Leonard Fournette expects to play against Texans

Jacksonville Jaguars running back Leonard Fournette expects to play Sunday against the Houston Texans despite missing two days of practice.

Fournette injured his right quadriceps muscle in the third quarter against Seattle last week when safety Earl Thomas hit him near the sideline. Fournette did not practice Wednesday or Thursday, but he says he’s just being cautious.

The rookie says “right now, just taking care of it, make sure nothing else happens to it. That’s about it.”

Fournette has 923 yards rushing and eight touchdowns, needing 77 more over the final three games to become the second rookie in franchise history to record 1,000 yards on the ground. Fred Taylor accomplished the feat in 1998, finishing with 1,223 yards rushing.

For the Texans, third-string quarterback T.J. Yates will get his first start this season with Deshaun Watson out for the season with a knee injury and backup Tom Savage recovering from a concussion.

Abrams’ ambition

New York Giants interim general manager Kevin Abrams wants the job full time.

Speaking to reporters for the first time since replacing Jerry Reese on Dec. 4, Abrams didn’t hesitate to say he wanted the job and he believes he is ready to do it.

Abrams was reluctant to lay out his resume, saying he didn’t want to campaign for the job. He has been with the Giants for 16 seasons and is known mostly for being their salary-cap specialist.

“My role has been doing more than the cap stuff,” Abrams said Thursday as the team started practice.

“I wasn’t raised to be the cap guy. It was just the opportunity that was given to me. I was grateful for the opportunity. The Giants do a great job with everyone, not just me. We’re all encouraged to grow professionally and I was given the opportunity to do that and I took advantage of the opportunity whenever I could and a lot of that included being involved with our personnel departments.”

Etc.

The public entity that oversees the Raiders’ proposed stadium in Las Vegas has expressed satisfaction over a plan presented by the team that addresses minority hiring goals.

Under the agreement, minority and female workers would carry out at least 38% of construction work hours and 55% of operation hours on event days.