Last week, when Patriots coach Bill Belichick was asked if his team would have guard Tre' Jackson or running back Dion Lewis available at practice, Belichick said "probably not." For him, that's about as definitive as it gets.
This week, it's a different story.
Belichick was asked on Tuesday if the Patriots would "start the clock" on Lewis and Jackson, both of whom have been on the physically unable to perform list since training camp. The Patriots have five more weeks to determine whether or not they would like to have Lewis or Jackson practice. Once they do begin practicing, the clock starts, and the team will have three weeks to activate them.
"We’ll have to talk with our medical and conditioning staff and kind of get a sense of where everybody is, and then figure that out from when practice starts on Wednesday," Belichick said. "So we’ll take a look at that information and see where we are, and then make a decision on it prior to Wednesday’s practice."
It wasn't a confirmation that either player would practice, but it wasn't "probably not," either.