JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Fred Taylor's frustration could be nearing an end.

The Jaguars running back practiced Wednesday for the first time since tearing his groin in September. He was listed as questionable on the team's injury report.

Coach Tom Coughlin said he expects Taylor to be playing by next week at the latest. Taylor is making no promises -- either about the timing of his return, or the effect it could have on a team with a five-game losing streak.

"I'm only one person," Taylor said. "A lot of guys would like to see me out there. Some guys tend to rally around the fact that I'm out there."

Since joining the team, he has missed 15 of Jacksonville's 55 regular-season games with injuries. Just like last year, and the year before, the Jaguars (2-5) suffer when Taylor is out.

This season, Jacksonville ranks 26th in the league in rushing. The most dramatic effect of that shows up in time of possession, where Jacksonville ranks last, at just 26:10 a game.

The Jaguars run an average of 56 plays on offense, 13 fewer than their opponents, and that might help explain why the defense has worn down the last two weeks, blowing double-digit leads to Baltimore and Tennessee.

Since tearing the tendon away from the bone on Sept. 23, Taylor has been reduced to the most frustrated fan in a city filled with them.

"It's been the most frustrating, the most painful" of all his injuries, Taylor said. "You lose five games on top of it, and it hurts like hell. It hurts to lose, and it hurts when you're injured, and you can't do anything about it but sit back and watch."

Unlike his knee injury last year, or his hamstring injury in 1999, Taylor says he has always known his groin would take six to eight weeks to heal -- no less -- and there's no use in hurrying to come back at less than full health.

"Because of the position I play, and the type of moves I try and type of burst I need, I need to be 100 percent," he said. "If I'm 75 or 80 percent, thinking I'm just going to go out there and do straight-line running, that's not my game."

Coughlin said Taylor's status will be evaluated based on the kind of pain he feels Thursday morning.

Since the injury, the Jaguars have used Stacey Mack, Elvis Joseph and Frank Moreau at running back. The Jaguars have averaged 84 yards rushing since Taylor's injury, 27 yards less than the NFL average. Their longest rush of the season is Mark Brunell's 38-yard scramble against Baltimore.

"A lot of people try to put pressure on me," Taylor said. "They say, `When is he going to come back? Is there a Fred sighting?' That stuff doesn't make me smile, it doesn't make me upset. My thing is to better myself. When I'm better, I'll come back, and when I get back, I'll try to play my best."