Rex Ryan is going to school Belichick on how to use a player with versatility? Belichick who used Troy Brown at CB, Don Davis at safety, Vince Wilfork at DE, Mike Vrabel at TE, Richard Seymour or Tom Ashworth or Russ Hochstein at FB (well maybe using Seymour at FB was a mistake)?
The problem wasn't that they didn't use Thomas at multiple positions (they did use him at ILB his first year here). It was that he wasn't producing in his primary role to allow them to move him around. I seriously doubt that if the Pats moved Thomas around, that he would have been significantly more effective.
I do also think the success of his first year has made Ryan's ego spin out of control a bit. He is even more pompous than last year. He might want to temper the rhetoric until he is sure that the playoff run last year wasn't a fluke and he didn't dismantle his running game too much this offseason.