After practice Friday, the Texans made official what many predicted all week: Receiver Andre Johnson will miss a fourth consecutive game.

Johnson said his hamstring didn't feel right after practice Wednesday and Thursday. He wasn't upbeat about the possibility of playing Sunday when the Texans face Jacksonville at Reliant Stadium.

Johnson, 30, didn't practice Friday. He stood to the side and watched his teammates, wearing a towel on his head.

"I just don't feel like I'm ready to play," Johnson said. "It gets frustrating because every week a game goes by that you wish you can be out there, but it's just part of the process. I just keep working hard, and, hopefully, next week I can be out on the field."

The Texans host the Cleveland Browns on Nov. 6.

"I'm not at full speed yet, and I said I won't put myself out there until I'm able to run full speed," Johnson said. "It's a day-by-day thing. Every week, you're trying to hope that you can be out there on Sunday.

"I feel like I've made progress, but the main thing is trying to get to full speed. I haven't been able to get to that yet, so that's why I'm not playing."

Risk management

Johnson doesn't want to risk making the injury worse by returning too soon. He knows the Texans have nine games left.

"You don't want to put yourself out there, and you can't play like you can play," he said. "Who wants to go out on the field and see a half-speed Andre Johnson?

"That's not a good thing. You'll be hurting your team.

"I'll just be sitting on the sideline again cheering my guys on. Like I said, it's been frustrating because I want to be out there, but at the same time, I'm just working my butt off trying to get back."

Johnson suffered a torn hamstring against Pittsburgh on Oct. 2. Jacoby Jones replaced him in the lineup. The Texans are 1-2 without Johnson.

"I'm probably 70 to 75 percent," he said. "The biggest thing right now is I can run. I've been running for a couple weeks now. It's just trying to explode and really open up and run full speed. That's the thing I haven't been able to do, so that's something I'll continue to work on and, hopefully, as the week goes by, it'll get better."

Johnson (6-3, 226) isn't feeling any pain when he tries to cut loose.

"No, it's just tugging, but that's part of it," he said. "Those things are going to happen when you have procedures done. You just have to get used to not doing things that you normally do.

"There's nothing else I can do. You just have to keep maintaining the rehab and keep pushing myself."

Backups ready

The Texans will have Derrick Mason and Bryant Johnson as reserves behind Jones and Kevin Walter.

"He's had a really good week," coach Gary Kubiak said about Johnson. "I held him out of practice today (Friday) so he could actually probably work a little harder on his own with the trainer. We made a lot of progress this week. He's real close but not yet ready to go, so we've got to have other guys continue to step up."

Kubiak said it wasn't an easy decision to keep Johnson out.

"He's very, very close, and he's working very hard," Kubiak said. "We watch him and listen to him. We've got a long, long way to go, and we're going to do the right thing so that when Andre's back, he's back at 100 percent."