“He’s been out there doing things with the training staff for a long time, so this is the next step,” Belichick said.

The speedy Lewis, who tore his ACL last November and was on the PUP list to start the season after having a second surgery on the knee in August, returned to practice Thursday, but Belichick said he’s been on the mend for much longer.

Belichick also praised Lewis’s work ethic.

“Dion works really hard,” he said. “I think nobody works harder than Dion.”


It’s unlikely that Lewis would play Sunday in Buffalo, and the Patriots have a bye the week after that, but Lewis seems to be on a relatively swift timetable. The Patriots had three more weeks to activate him but chose to do so Thursday, a positive sign.

In the meantime, the Patriots are preparing to face the Bills, and Belichick addressed how Buffalo’s versatile offense makes that a special challenge. Playing to mobile quarterback Tyrod Taylor’s strengths, the Bills use a plethora of unbalanced line formations and wildcat runs.

“With them, you’re not going to see anything, like, 30 times,” he said. “You’re going to see five of these, six of these, five of these, six of these, maybe eight of something else, maybe two of something else.

“But that’s kind of what they do. Yeah, it definitely stretches you and forces you to prepare for those things that you’re going to get a handful of times in the game.

“You might get them more if you don’t stop them, but that’s what they do and they’re pretty successful at that because they do force teams to eat up a lot of practice time working on things that they’re only going to see a couple of times, but then they’re on to something else.”


Nora Princiotti can be reached at nora.princiotti@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter at @NoraPrinciotti.