What A.J. Brown returning to practice means for the Patriots

The New England Patriots returned to the practice fields on Wednesday, and so did A.J. Brown. Exactly five weeks after suffering a high ankle sprain in the season opener against the Seattle Seahawks, the star wide receiver made his comeback.

While only participating on a limited basis, Brown's return is an encouraging step forward for both him and the team alike. Let's assess what else it means from a big-picture perspective.

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Clock starts ticking

Brown returning to practice and getting designated to come back off of injured reserve means that he is now officially eligible to play in this week's game against the New York Jets. Whether he actually will be activated for the contest remains to be seen.

"He hasn't been out there for four weeks, so we'll get him back out there practicing and see if he's ready to go in a couple days," said head coach Mike Vrabel. "If not, then we have a 21-day window, and we'll go from there."

As Vrabel mentioned, the team is in no rush: it has 21 days to make that call before the return window shuts close again and he would revert back to IR to end his season. That, of course, is an outcome not expected to happen. In fact, it seems more likely that Brown will be back on the 53-man roster sooner rather than later.

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Much-needed boost

The Patriots offense has suffered some more losses since initially seeing Brown go down with his sprained ankle in Week 1.

Wide receiver Mack Hollins, fullback Reggie Gilliam and right guard Mike Onwenu plus his replacement, Greg Van Roten, have all since joined him on injured reserve. In the meantime, tight end Eli Raridon also missed time due to injury, while left tackle Will Campbell and running back TreVeyon Henderson are facing unclear outlooks after sustaining knee and ankle injuries during the Week 5 win over the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday.

The Patriots offense has had to take its hits over the last month, so getting somebody back — especially of the quality of Brown — should be a natural boost for the unit. At the very least, it adds more depth at a receiver position that has performed admirably recently but still became relatively thinned-out after Hollins was injured.

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Tip of the iceberg

Brown's return to practice was not the only good news coming out of Foxborough on Wednesday. The Patriots also saw offensive tackle Marcus Bryant make his own comeback after he started the season on injured reserve with an ankle injury.

In addition, cornerback Christian Gonzalez returned after missing the last two weeks with a shoulder injury; the Pro Bowler classifies himself as "ready to go" this week against the Jets.

Furthermore, there were two surprising participants at practice on Wednesday. The aforementioned Will Campbell was part of the session as a limited participant, despite his status reportedly being "week to week" — a distinction he changed to "day by day" when talking to the media in the locker room. Also on the field was TreVeyon Henderson, who reportedly is set to "miss multiple weeks" but did take the field.

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Long story short, in a season marred by injuries so far, Wednesday was a definitive positive.

Another return spot taken

NFL teams are allowed to bring up to eight players back from injured reserve during the season, under the condition that they were either sent to the list after the league's roster cutdown deadline or labeled as "designated to return" right away when sent to IR on cutdown day itself. This means that the Patriots have now made use of two of those spots.

The first was used on Marcus Bryant when he was sent to IR ahead of the late-August roster cuts. Now, a second spot has been taken by Brown and his return to practice.

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This leaves the Patriots with six available return spots, regardless of whether or not Brown or Bryant actually do get activated to the 53-man roster. Players eligible to fill those openings on the return list include FB Reggie Gilliam, WR Mack Hollins, RG Mike Onwenu, OL Greg Van Roten, ED Quintayvious Hutchins, LB Khalil Jacobs, S Dell Pettus and P Bryce Baringer — which means that at least two of them won't be brought back.