Despite the fact that Adalius Thomas was a healthy scratch Sunday for the first time since his rookie season, the Patriots sound like they are counting on the outside linebacker making a contribution again sooner rather than later.

In a conference call Monday afternoon, New England coach Bill Belichick expressed his confidence in Thomas, saying the veteran “can help us, and I think he will help us.”

“I’ve said many times, I think he’s a good football player. He’s versatile,” Belichick said. “He’s made some big plays for us, and he’s done a lot of different jobs and we have a lot of confidence in him. If that wasn’t the case, then he wouldn’t be here.

“I’m glad we have him. I think he can help us and I think he will help us.”

In the days leading up to Sunday's game against Tennessee, Thomas was reportedly suffering from an elbow problem, but nothing severe enough to warrant a spot on the injury report. As a result, he was deemed a healthy scratch for the first time since he was a part-time linebacker and special teamer for Baltimore in 2000.

After Sunday’s game, Belichick explained the decision as a game-planning maneuver, saying, “We just went with the players we thought would have the bigger role in the game.”

In his place, the Patriots went with a rotation at outside linebacker, using a combination of players that included Pierre Woods, Rob Ninkovich, Tully Banta-Cain and Derrick Burgess on the outside in the 3-4.

“When you look at what the roles for those players were on all four downs — first, second, third and fourth — they each contributed in at least one and two areas pretty strongly,” Belichick said. “Every player has value, and if we could have brought more than 45 players to the game we would have and I’m sure they all would have played. It’s just we had to select the one’s who we felt would have the bigger role in the game, and so that’s what we did.”

Thomas has appeared to struggle on several occasions this year. He entered yesterday’s game with just 12 tackles through the first five games of the season. He had been unable to get any sort of sustained pressure on opposing quarterbacks, with just two quarterback hits and one sack on the season.

When asked to assess how Thomas has performed this season, New England defensive coordinator Dean Pees said he’s looked like everyone else on the roster.

“There’s been some good things and some not good things, just like the other 10 players,” said Pees of Thomas. “I could say that about every player on defense and I could say that about myself, particularly, too. There’s been some good things and some not so good things.

“I just think he’s a good athlete and good player.”

Going forward, Belichick explained that Thomas’ situation could change this week as preparation begins for Tampa Bay.

“It was one game,” Belichick said. “We’ll evaluate it this coming week against Tampa like we always do. This week’s different from last week.”

According to a source, Thomas was not at the stadium for Sunday’s game. Deion Sanders, the NFL Network’s analyst, said Sunday night on “GameDay Final” show that he spoke with Thomas, and sounds confident that the linebacker will work out whatever issues he may have with Belichick’s decision.

“I talked to [Thomas],” said Sanders, who played with Thomas in Baltimore for parts of the 2004 and 2005 seasons. “He’s upset. He’s going to work it out with his coach, but he’ll be back.”