The Patriots once again held a Thursday walkthrough, rather than subject players to another day of contact. They've adopted this approach in recent weeks – going with padded practices on Wednesdays and Fridays only – in an apparent attempt to manage the overall health of a 53-man roster that is getting more beaten up as the regular season nears the final quarter.

While five Patriots were held out of Wednesday's activity, only two – WR Chris Hogan (right shoulder) and right tackle Marcus Cannon (left ankle) – did not take part in today's non-padded workout.

That meant good news for QB Tom Brady (Achilles heel), backup right tackle LaAdrian Waddle (right ankle), and linebacker Trevor Reilly (concussion), all of whom returned to limited participation in the walkthrough earlier today.

Brady's being held out yesterday and returning today due to his Achilles issue follows a pattern that began last week. He was eventually removed from the injury report last Friday and played this past Sunday. There's no reason to believe that won't be the case again this week.

In Waddle's case, Friday's practice might give us a better understanding of whether or not he'll be recovered enough to make the trip to Buffalo and continue his streak of starting in place of Cannon, who's been out of commission since going down during the Chargers game in Week 8.

Reilly's condition is another worth monitoring, as he's gone from exclusively being a special teams role player to a regular contributor on defense in recent weeks. The pickup this week of linebacker Nicholas Grigsby off the Ravens' practice squad might be a sign that the team is concerned about its depth at that position. By this time tomorrow, we should have more clarity on Reilly's status for this weekend's game.