Terrell Owens provided a much-needed positive development for the Buffalo Bills' offense

Monday by returning to practice.

If fans had been allowed to watch, confetti would have been thrown.

The Bills' big receiver not only participated fully, he displayed a positive attitude about

the offense, despite the fact it has looked awful in his absence the past two games.

"No, no not at all," Owens said, asked if he was worried about the offense. "I know that's the

nature of preseason. I'm sure everyone wants us to win every preseason game, but that doesn't

happen. I think the year the Patriots won the Super Bowl, I think they may have lost every

preseason game, so there's really not a whole lot to just look into as far as the preseason.

But obviously I understand the fans' frustration. Obviously, they want to see some production,

see some big plays. But that'll come."

Fans probably will have to wait until the season opener against New England on Sept. 14 to

see Owens provide some big plays. Bills coach Dick Jauron acknowledged he probably will hold

Owens out of Thursday's game against Detroit.

Owens missed three weeks of practice after spraining the big toe on his right foot Aug. 9.

"It felt good to be back out," Owens said. "Obviously dealing with a toe injury, no one

really knows the extent of it and how it really feels to have a bum toe. But I've done all the

treatments and it's gotten better week to week. I felt better coming into this week getting a

little practice in."

Owens said he is not worried that the injury might recur.

"No, not at all because really, come to find out, it was really due to the shoe that I had

on," he said. "It was not anything structurally or due to a tackle or anything like that. It

had to do with a type of shoe that I was wearing, so obviously it was a different shoe than I

had last year. So I just had to switch shoes. It's good that it happened earlier than later."

Asked about the struggles of quarterback Trent Edwards the past two weeks and the comments

of fans calling him Captain Checkdown, Owens said:

"I guess last week everybody was praising him, when he went 10 for 10, so I don't think

they were calling him "Captain Checkdown' then," he said.

Edwards on Owens' return:

"He looked great. I'm happy to have him back out there and he's obviously a big part of our

offense. I need to get on the same page with him here pretty soon, and he's going to be a big

factor here in Week One."

"I definitely feel that once I get back into the full swing of things and everybody's fresh

and back together as one unit, then things will happen for us," Owens said.