"Though it's highly unlikely he'll play Monday night in the regular season opener at Kansas City , outside linebacker Shawne Merriman returned to practice Wednesday, the first time he's gone through drills since Aug. 17 due to the recurrence of an Achilles issue that hampered him last year.

"It felt pretty good," said Merriman. "I'm just doing a little more each day, trying to take little steps forward and no steps backward."

Only three practices after ending his holdout to sign a $3.69 million tender and rejoin the team in mid-August, Merriman was sidelined again by the soreness and swelling in his Achilles. He's gradually been increasing the range of activity, but only Wednesday did he return to pads and the practice field . "