This week, the Patriots will join 31 other teams in Indianapolis for the annual NFL scouting combine, which will open Thursday morning at Lucas Oil Stadium. Each team goes about the process in different ways -- some teams put too much stock in seeing a physical freak in something like the 40-yard dash or bench press, while others prefer to move cautiously, making sure to put the combine appearance in proper context. (That is to say, a small part of the scouting process.)

With that in mind, here are five things you have to know about how the Patriots approach pro football’s version of the underwear Olympics:

For them, it’s the next-to-last part of the scouting process.

By the time the Patriots get to the combine, they have a pretty good idea of where there are from a scouting perspective. Director of Player Personnel Nick Caserio explained the process as being the next-to-last part of the scouting puzzle, the “culmination” of a series of individual evaluations that have been going since the start of college football season.

“The way we kind of look at it, if you evaluate the player over the course of the fall -- let’s say you watch six games, this is really kind of another game,” Caserio said. “It’s another opportunity for [players] to be evaluated.”

The final stage of the process usually involves Pro Days and/or individual workouts, most of which take place over the following month.

Just because a guy doesn’t get invited doesn’t mean they aren’t looking at him.

The Patriots often manage to find terrific prospects without the help of the combine. Wide receiver Wes Welker, tackle Sebastian Vollmer, wide receiver Julian Edelman and defensive back Tavon Wilson didn’t get invited to the combine as collegians, but all of them have managed to find a spot on the New England roster over the last few seasons. (In that same vein, Troy Brown also didn’t get an invite to the combine, and his career turned out OK.)

Caserio said in the past that those small-school guys who might not get an invite to the combine are still thoroughly vetted at their respective Pro Days. (Caserio said the Patriots had multiple private workouts with Edelman, putting the former college quarterback through his paces at a variety of positions.)

This isn’t to suggest that the Patriots are alone in their ability to find under-the-radar prospects, but just to point out that the combine invite/appearance is great from a prospects resume perspective, but barring a colossal disaster of a workout, it doesn’t necessarily define you in eyes of some teams -- including the Patriots.

A good interview with them can put a prospect over the top.

The chance to sit down with a prospect and really hammer him with some serious questions is a key part of the evaluation process.

“You ask questions to figure out if this guy is controlling his life or is someone else controlling it,” said Chiefs GM Scott Pioli, who was part of the Patriots’ interview process at the combine when he was part of the New England front office.

The Patriots were sold on Pat Chung when they had a chance to sit down with him for the first time at the combine. Caserio recalled their first connection with Chung at the combine in February 2009.

“After 15 minutes, we were ready to run through a wall,” Caserio would later say of their time with Chung. “It was like, ‘Sign me up.’”

The brief window of opportunity you get to interview a player is usually dedicated to trying to figure out just what sort of individual a team would be drafting. Sometimes it’s off-putting questions that are designed to see if you can keep your cool, other times it’s the chance to tell a team what happened on a particularly bad piece of college tape. Regardless, if the Patriots are interested in a prospect, a good Q&A can win them over.

They put more stock in some drills than others.

Like every other team in the league, the Patriots look closely at a prospects physical skill set, but when it comes to wide receivers and defensive backs, they pay particular attention to quickness, agility and footwork. That’s why the 3-cone drill can be a good indicator of whether or not a potential prospect is on New England’s radar screen: lots of the relatively under-the-radar receivers (for purposes of this story, let’s call them non first-rounders) the Patriots have gone after in recent years have all excelled in the agility drills. Edelman had a 6.62 second time in the 3-cone drill as a collegian. Deion Branch was 6.71 (at the 2002 combine), Chad Jackson (at the 2006 combine) was 6.74 and Wes Welker was 7.06. (For some perspective, those performances would put them in the Top 10 at the combine most years.) That also translates to the defensive side of the football, as Devin McCourty’s 6.7 in the 3-cone drill at the 2010 combine put him second among all corners.

They hate podiums.

Most of the time, while the rest of coaches and GMs dutifully climbs to one of the podiums to undergo a grilling from the national media. More often than not, the Patriots make it a point to steer clear of the spotlight during their time in Indy. Bill Belichick spoke with the media in 2009, but since then, he’s left the media interaction to Caserio, and that’s usually done far away from the main room at the combine -- instead, he usually addresses a handful of New England media in a secluded corner of Lucas Oil Stadium.