FOXBORO -- When it comes to replacing Aaron Hernandez in the Patriots’ offense, Kellen Winslow Jr. knows he’ll only be a small part of the puzzle.

Hernandez, who went down with an ankle injury in the first half of Sunday’s loss to the Cardinals, is one of the most versatile offensive options in the league, capable of being deployed any number of ways. With that in mind -- and with Hernandez expected to be on the shelf for a month -- the Patriots tweaked their personnel slightly on Wednesday, adding Winslow and bringing veteran wide receiver Deion Branch back into the mix.

While the return of Branch will help provide depth and some positional flexibility at wide receiver, Winslow also brings an added dimension to the passing game. The 6-foot-4, 240-pounder caught 75 passes for 763 yards and two touchdowns with the Buccaneers last season, and he’s recorded at least 66 catches while accounting for 730 or more receiving yards in each of the last three years.

“We’ll see how Kellen fits in. I’ve never coached him before, don’t have any background with him, but [we] feel like he might have a chance to help us so that’s why he’s here,” said Patriots coach Bill Belichick. “He’s been productive. He’s been a productive player for quite awhile.”

“I just met Kellen yesterday for the first time,” quarterback Tom Brady said Wednesday, “so I’m excited to get out there and practice with him. I think he’s excited to get started, too. Aaron has been a huge contributor for us and every time he’s in there, he seems to be making plays. We’ll see how it goes without him or with him, I don’t know. It’s just a matter of him feeling well enough to go out there and play.”

“Winslow was also in the Tampa Bay system with Pete Mangurian, who coached in New England,” said Baltimore defensive coordinator Dean Pees. “So, there’s not as big a transition for people there, with Winslow coming into this system, as somebody might think, as just some tight end coming in from somewhere else. He’ll know the system.

“How they use [Winslow] … the one thing, being with them for six years, there are so many different ways they can approach this game, and they have. I have seen a lot different ways. I think you just have to be prepared for a lot of different scenarios personnel-wise. They brought Deion Branch back. There are a lot of different things that can go on there. Like I said, having been with them for a long time, there are a lot of different ways they can approach this game. We’re going to have to be ready for all of it and see how they start it, see how they play.”

Winslow, speaking before practice on Thursday, said that there are some “similarities” between what he’s done over the course of his career and what Hernandez has accomplished. They are both longer, leaner receivers who fit the same mold -- tight ends who are more accomplished as pass catchers than blockers.

However, Winslow cautioned reporters that he is no Hernandez.

“You just have to watch tape. There’s some similarities there,” Winslow said. “[Hernandez is] probably one of the most versatile tight ends in the game, if not the most. He goes all around the field. He can play any position. He’s very versatile in what he does and he’s smart. So, yeah, he’s a very good player.

“It’s going to take me a while to catch up to where he’s at.”

“Winslow is a more traditional receiving tight end, but he’s never been any threat to run, and isn’t nearly as elusive as Hernandez with the ball in his hands,” said Sam Monson, an analyst for Pro Football Focus. “Think of him essentially as a big wide receiver who teams usually treat as a tight end and will leave in to block. He’s not very good as a blocker, but he isn’t so completely one-dimensional that teams just treat him as a wide out like they did Hernandez.

“I think he gives the Patriots an interesting option, and can certainly get down the field from two tight sets, but he’s no Hernandez.”

Shortly after the Seahawks released him earlier this month, the Patriots kicked the tires on Winslow earlier this year when they brought him in for a visit. It was a getting-to-know-you session, but also one where New England likely wanted to ask some pointed questions about his health -- Winslow has been dogged by right knee problems over the course of his career, so much so that he acknowledged Thursday that he plays in pain.

When asked about questions surrounding the health of his knee, Winslow -- who first injured the knee two games into his rookie season with the Browns -- shrugged it off.

“It’s a question every year. The thing I concentrate on is missing games because then there’s nothing to hold against me,” he said. “It’s my dream to play. Like I said, if I was missing games every year or something like that, it would be true.”

The 29-year-old is the latest in a line of second-generation NFL players the Patriots have signed over the last couple of years, joining a group that includes Matt Slater, Bobby Carpenter and Andre Carter. Taken in the first round of the 2004 draft out of Miami, he’s played with the Browns and Bucs, but acknowledged Thursday that he has some work to do when it comes to picking up the Patriots’ system -- he said he’s been in the playbook “non-stop” -- but has already gotten some face time with quarterback Tom Brady.

“At the end of the day, football is football,” he said. “What they’re doing here is ... the volume of the playbook is a lot. It’s going to take some time to get used to, but at the end of the day, football is football. It’s just verbiage, and getting used to the calls, getting used to Tom’s cadence, and just knowing now only what I have but what everyone else has, because people switch positions here.”