PRO FOOTBALL DAILY REPORT : AROUND THE NFL : Carolinas Welcome Game

Questions abound as the NFL comes one more time to the Carolinas, one of the areas hungry for an NFL franchise.

The Washington Redskins will face the New York Jets tonight at Williams-Brice Stadium at Columbia, S.C., in the final exhibition game for both teams, who between them are 1-5 and have questions about their regular-season rosters.

But for fans in North and South Carolina, there is but one question: Is an NFL team in the Carolinas’ future? The answer won’t come until 1992, when the league is supposed to announce expansion sites.

The game is expected to draw a near-capacity crowd and is the final on-field production in a four-year campaign for an NFL expansion team in Charlotte, N.C.

Rod Woodson hopes to play full time in the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Sept. 1 season opener, even though he sat out the exhibition season in a contract holdout. Woodson, who reached terms Thursday on the richest contract in Steeler history, a three-year deal worth between $1.4 million and $1.5 million per year, won’t begin practicing until Tuesday--only five days before the game against San Diego.

Woodson, the top vote-getter for last season’s Pro Bowl among American Conference kick returners, also wants to return kickoffs and punts. He would also like to catch passes and will ask Coach Chuck Noll to use him occasionally as a wide receiver.

Minnesota defensive tackle Keith Millard said he had been told he won’t start the Vikings’ Sept. 1 season opener at Chicago because his injured knee hasn’t improved enough.

It is the first clear sign that the Vikings are concerned that Millard, who underwent surgery on his right knee in October and missed the rest of the season, will not soon regain the form that made him NFL defensive player of the year in 1989.

The New England Patriots said they had reached agreements with cornerback Maurice Hurst and nose tackle Tim Goad, completing two days of signings that brought back all three of the team’s defensive holdouts.