5. Injury keeps Brady sidelined

Titans interview Vrabel; Steelers promote QB coach.

Patriots quarterback Tom Brady missed practice Thursday with a right hand injury.

Patriots quarterback Tom Brady missed practice with a right hand injury a day after being limited by the same issue as New England prepared for its AFC Championship game matchup with Jacksonville.

Brady was present and wore a glove on the injured hand Thursday during the stretching portion of practice open to reporters. But he was listed as a non-participant on the injury report. He usually only wears a glove on his non-throwing hand.

His scheduled news conference was also postponed until today.

Brady appeared on the Patriots’ weekly injury report several times during the latter half of the regular season with an Achilles tendon and left shoulder injury.

But the 40-year-old has never missed a playoff start during his 18-year career. He hasn’t missed any start because of an injury since he sat out the final 15 games of the 2008 season with a knee injury.

Titans: Kicked off their search for a new coach by interviewing Houston defensive coordinator Mike Vrabel.

Tennessee is looking to replace Mike Mularkey, fired Monday after he went 21-22 and won the franchise’s first playoff game in 14 years.

Vrabel, 42, has never been a head coach at any level. He is coming off his first season as defensive coordinator for the Texans. Vrabel played 14 years in the NFL with Pittsburgh, New England, where he won three Super Bowl titles, and Kansas City before going into coaching.

Steelers: Randy Fichtner was named offensive coordinator to replace Todd Haley, who was not retained following Pittsburgh’s divisional playoff loss to Jacksonville.

Fichtner has been an assistant with Pittsburgh since 2007 and spent the past eight seasons as quarterbacks coach, where he developed a strong rapport with Ben Roethlisberger.

Fichtner’s previous experience as offensive coordinator came at the collegiate level, when he served in the role at Memphis from 2001-06. Fichtner previously worked with Pittsburgh coach Mike Tomlin in the late 1990s when both were assistants at Arkansas State.

Falcons: Steve Sarkisian will return as offensive coordinator despite Atlanta’s decline in production in his debut 2017 season.

Sarkisian has been the target of criticism as the Falcons, who lost at Philadelphia in the divisional round of the playoffs last week, fell short of a return trip to the Super Bowl.

After leading the league in scoring in 2016, the Falcons fell to 15th this season.

Browns: Joe Thomas remains torn about his football future. Cleveland’s star left tackle, who played more than 10,000 consecutive snaps before suffering a season-ending left triceps injury on Oct. 22, said he’s undecided about continuing his Hall of Fame-caliber career — or retiring.

“Making progress,” the 10-time Pro Bowler said. “Had a lot of time to think and spend some time with the family, but not ready definitively to make a decision one way or the other just yet. Really for me, my decision is just going to come down to do I feel like I’m healthy enough to survive another season?”

One of the NFL’s premier tackles, Thomas was on the field for 10,363 straight plays before his triceps ripped while blocking on a running play against Tennessee.

Raiders: Former head coach Tom Cable is back on the Oakland staff to coach the offensive line.

The 53-year-old Cable coached the Raiders for three seasons (2008-10) and finished with a record of 17-27.

He had been the assistant head coach and offensive line coach in Seattle since 2011 until his firing last week.

Mike Vrabel was Houston’s defensive coordinator in 2017.