ALLEN PARK, Mich. — The Detroit Lions welcome back former coach Jim Schwartz for this week’s game against the Buffalo Bills.

Schwartz, now the defensive coordinator in Buffalo, coached the Lions the past five seasons, leading them to their first postseason berth in 12 years in 2011 before two losing seasons resulted in his firing last December.

Although many Lions, including defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh, still have a good relationship with Schwartz, they still want to send his former coach and the Bills home with a loss.

“Hopefully we’ll give him the correct welcoming and then send him off the right way,” Suh said Wednesday.

The crowd, though, might boo early with Schwartz on the field for the first time since he yelled expletives to the stands. Quarterback Matthew Stafford said he’s not worried about how the fans treat Schwartz.

“That’s not up to me,” Stafford said.

During Schwartz’s last couple years in Detroit, he took much of the control away from defensive coordinator Gunther Cunningham and led a fairly vanilla defense that rarely blitzed or deviated from its 4-3 base or nickel package.

So far in Buffalo, Schwartz has called a more diverse defense with packages that include 3-4, 3-3-5 and dime looks, and he is substituting personnel more consistently than he did in Detroit.

“I’m just trying to study their defense as much as I possibly can,” Stafford said. “It’s obviously different. They’ve got different players than we have here and different strengths and weaknesses within those players. They’re playing a little bit different, and it’s on us to go out and execute.

“He’s a creative defensive play caller. He’ll find ways to do and get the matchups he wants.”

Bills coach Doug Marrone doesn’t think Schwartz knowing the Lions roster is much of an advantage, besides possibly knowing a few tendencies.

“From a personnel standpoint, obviously he has a little insight,” Marrone said. “He was there, also (quarterbacks coach) Todd Downing was there. But again, the schematics, it’s different coordinators. Joe Lombardi and I worked together for a long time and you can see some similarities, but obviously you play to the strengths of your players. That’s about really the only insight that you get and that’s a limited amount.”

Seeing Schwartz in the fourth exhibition game in Buffalo helped the Lions prepare for their run-in this weekend.

“He’s onto his new job; we’re onto the new regime, and we’re way beyond I think feeling that,” center Dominic Raiola said. “For him, maybe coming back to the stadium he coached and he was the boss of for five years, there might be some emotions for him, but for us, we’ve got our own problems up front facing their front seven.”

NOTES: The Lions promoted second-year RB George Winn to the active roster Tuesday after placing special teams ace Montell Owens on injured reserve with an undisclosed injury. … WR Calvin Johnson (ankle) and RB Joique Bell (concussion) missed practice Wednesday. … Players limited in practice included DT Nick Fairley (knee) and DE Devin Taylor (knee). … Others missing practice were LB Travis Lewis (quad), TE Joseph Fauria (ankle) and RB Theo Riddick (hamstring).