Belichick: Hard to predict when Lewis will return

New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick was typically evasive Wednesday when asked about running back Dion Lewis' progress towards a return to the lineup.

"I think any time a player is coming back from missing a significant amount of time, there's a certain buildup process," Belichick said, according to ESPN's Mike Reiss. "Sometimes that accelerates, sometimes it doesn't, sometimes it just stays on a straight-line course. It's hard to predict how that's going to go."

Lewis tore his ACL last season and was activated to the Patriots' 53-man roster off the PUP list on Saturday, but was inactive for Sunday's game against the Seattle Seahawks.

"There's a big difference between training and playing football," Belichick said. "You can run around a track, run up and down a hill, do 10,000 pushups and all of that. I mean, that's great, but that's not being out there with 21 other guys playing football. Football is football. Training is an important part and component of being ready to play football, but playing football is playing football."

Belichick is not wrong. Playing football is, indeed, playing football.

Last week, Belichick suggested it would be hard for Lewis to take the Patriots' passing-down job from James White. Reading between the lines, which is all you can do with Belichick, it doesn't sound like Lewis will be back on the field any time soon.

Then again, maybe he'll start next week.