With the Pats’ Rosevelt Colvin, top, shown sacking Redskins QB Mark Brunell during an exhibition game last year, out for the season, Adalius Thomas is the likely replacement.

The Providence Journal/ Gretchen Ertl

FOXBORO — If Adalius Thomas already knows he’ll be moving to outside linebacker in Rosevelt Colvin’s absence, he wasn’t letting on yesterday.

With Colvin placed on season-ending injured reserve Tuesday with a foot injury, Thomas is the logical choice to bump to his spot from inside ’backer, where he has played for much of the season.

Asked if he’d be glad to move to outside linebacker, a more natural position for him, Thomas said, “I don’t know. It depends on whatever coach (Bill Belichick) see fit as far as that goes, but whoever it is that’s out there I’m pretty sure they’ll do the job.”

Getting answers yesterday on what is going to happen with the linebacking group now that Colvin is out of the mix was as easy as trying to figure out if Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone.

Mike Vrabel eschewed his usual Wednesday chat with the media; Pierre Woods would only direct reporters to “ask Bill,” and Tedy Bruschi declined to comment.

“We certainly didn’t want to lose Rosie, but that’s where we’re at, so we’ll just move on with what we have,” Belichick said.

What the Pats have is Thomas, Vrabel, Junior Seau and Bruschi remaining from the five-man rotation they had been utilizing. Seau and Bruschi have basically been trading reps at one of the inside spots, but now they may be playing together. The pair has a combined 30 years of NFL experience, but at 38 and 34, respectively, not playing every down has likely helped their effectiveness.

New England re-signed Chad Brown to shore up the group, which also includes second-year man Woods and third-year man Eric Alexander, both of whom have played sparingly on defense. Alexander did start at inside linebacker in the AFC Championship Game last January, but missed four games recently with a knee injury.

Thomas was a Pro Bowl selection last year with Baltimore, playing primarily as an outside linebacker, recording 106 tackles and 11 sacks.

Though he has played most of his snaps inside thus far with New England, he looked good two weeks ago in Buffalo when he was outside. The Patriots played a high number of snaps in a 4-3 defensive alignment rather than their usual 3-4 in that game, and Thomas had 2 ½ sacks on Bills quarterback J.P. Losman.

But as far as whether it will be him, Thomas wasn’t letting on: “Whoever’s out there, whoever it is, that’s who it may be.”

That cleared things up, right?

Brown, who was cut on the eve of the regular season and then brought back for a month, dived right back into things yesterday. Though he hasn’t been around for about seven weeks, Brown said he’s familiar with what he’ll be asked to do against the Ravens.

A 15-year veteran, Brown is better outside; in his first tour with New England, in 2005, he was moved inside and it didn’t go as well as hoped.

“He’s done both,” Belichick said of Brown. “He’s a pretty versatile guy. He’s played inside, he’s played outside, he’s played defensive end for us in passing situations in the sub (defense), he’s played off-line, he’s played on the line. I think he definitely has versatility.”

The biggest thing Brown gives the Patriots, as Belichick noted, is his previous experience in the New England system.

“It’s a big advantage for us to have a player like that at this point in the year, who has that kind of flexibility, knows our system, who’s played in it,” Belichick said. “He’ll just have to work hard — I know he will — to get back up to speed with the different things that we’re doing since he was here last. But he’s a lot further along than we would be with a player who was totally new to our system.”

Brown wasn’t offering much when asked what his role might be, either, saying he hadn’t asked for specifics.

As with most things, Belichick said he and the coaching staff will figure out what’s best for the team and go from there.

Thomas feels that having players move around during games and throughout the season will come in handy now.

“All the linebackers are versatile, so I think that gives you flexibility on your defense,” Thomas said. “It’s beneficial because of injuries, being able to change things up, (if) someone gets tired — all those things are beneficial.

“You’re only as good as your bench, your depth, the people that come in to spell guys in a game as well as a season.”

smanza@projo.com