EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. -- The Minnesota Vikings are trying to put wide receiver Percy Harvin on the field more.
Harvin leads the team with nine catches and 83 yards receiving through two games, plus 33 yards rushing and a kickoff return for a touchdown on the first play of the season at San Diego. But Harvin was only used on about half of the snaps in last week's loss to Tampa Bay, largely because he's not a part of a certain formation the Vikings used often.
Adrian Peterson ran for 120 yards on 25 carries, gaining many of those yards out of that formation. So Harvin stood on the sideline.
Offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave said Harvin is one of the team's best blockers and is not automatically out when the Vikings want to run.
"We'll look for Percy to be out there as much as we can get him, of course," Musgrave said.
Harvin wasn't on the field at all on Thursday, missing practice because of what coach Leslie Frazier described as an illness -- but not a recurrence of the migraine headaches he's been plagued by in the past. Frazier said Harvin began to feel sick in the morning, but expected him to return to practice on Friday.
According to a video review by Twin Cities sports radio station website 1500ESPN.com, Harvin was on the field for only 30 of 68 snaps against the Buccaneers and 27 of 43 against the Chargers. That's 51 percent.
Harvin diplomatically deferred to Frazier and Musgrave when asked this week about his involvement in the offense.
"Coach decisions. We have different packages. We have certain situations where I may not be in certain packages, because it might call for something else," Harvin said.
"We definitely want to expand Percy's dynamic ability. We want to do a lot of good things in all packages, and certain packages Percy is a part of and certain packages he's not," Musgrave said. "We want to play to his strengths. He's so dynamic and he plays with such passion that we want to get effectiveness and get a good bang for our buck when he is on the field."
Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press
