INDIANAPOLIS — Welcome to the NFL combine.

Every offseason, Indianapolis serves a hub of league business, from scouting to free-agent negotiations, trade talks, possible rule changes and more. While the league spotlights the on-field workouts, it’s what happens behind closed doors — inside bars, restaurants, hotels and conference rooms — where the lifeblood of the combine flows.

For the Patriots, this year’s combine is their most critical in years, perhaps decades.

Director of scouting Eliot Wolf is now atop the front office, installing a new scouting system while he attempts to infuse the Pats’ roster with new talent in a new era. Several of the team’s internal free agents are considered among the NFL’s best available players at their positions. And in two months, the Patriots are scheduled to make a pick at No. 3 overall in what’s viewed as a three-quarterback draft class with no face of the franchise on board.

It’s time to get down to business. Here are the six most pressing items on the Patriots’ to-do list at this year’s combine:

1. Meet with the top quarterbacks

You know the names by now.

Caleb Williams. Drake Maye. Jayden Daniels.

The Patriots will have an opportunity to meet face-to-face with all of them in Indianapolis, plus a few other quarterbacks (Michael Penix and Bo Nix, among others) during official 15-minute interviews. If Wolf follows Patriot precedent, these sitdowns will mostly probe the prospects’ character and football IQ. The Pats have been known to conduct intense interviews, a way of stress-testing players on their board.

FILE – North Carolina quarterback Drake Maye (10) looks to pass against Syracuse during the first half of an NCAA college football game Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023, in Chapel Hill, N.C. (AP Photo/Chris Seward, File)

NFL teams are only permitted 45 official interviews, but often speak informally with most of the prospects in Indianapolis. Relatedly, if the Patriots meet with one, two or all three top quarterbacks, it is not, by itself, proof of significant interest. Most teams meet with most players, from quarterbacks to backup inside linebackers.

But when it comes to the game’s most important position, no prospect interviews will be more important than these. Keep an eye on the QBs.

2. Further talks with internal free agents

According to sources, the Patriots have already begun contract talks with most of their internal free agents (Kyle Dugger, Mike Onwenu and Kendrick Bourne, to name a few). How close are they?

Both sides will soon learn a lot more at the combine, where agents representing these players annually gauge outside interest in their clients. Officially, those talks are known as illegal tampering. Unofficially, this is how business is done.

It would behoove the Patriots to meet with agents repping their own players later in the week, after those agents determine the market for their respective clients. The Pats currently hold roughly $83 million in cap room, second-most in the league, heading into free agency. NFL free agency will open with a two-day “legal tampering” period on Monday, March 11, during which time most of the richest free-agent deals are struck.

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3. Tamper, tamper, tamper!

Before the Patriots circle back with those agents, they should seek the ones repping other players and test the waters.

The Pats have the cash and the cap to add an elite wideout — Michael Pittman Jr. or Mike Evans — an offensive tackle and defensive starters. Chiefs cornerback L’Jarius Sneed ranks among the NFL’s best at a premium position, as do defensive linemen Brian Burns and Justin Madiubuike. Offensively, Jaguars wideout Calvin Ridley, Giants running back Saquon Barkley and Texans tight end Dalton Schultz are other names to know.

4. Establish the trade market

How much could the Patriots fetch in a Mac Jones trade?

What would it cost to acquire a veteran — like Cincinnati’s Tee Higgins? — in a tag-and-trade scenario?

Is there a high-priced veteran the Pats could acquire and absorb into their cap space at a minimal trade cost?

The front office should be asking all of these questions amongst themselves and in talks with other executives at the combine. There are three ways to build a roster: free agency, the draft and via trade. The Patriots, given the sad-sack state of their team, must explore every avenue.

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5. Gather medical information

Before the quarterbacks throw, running backs run and defensive players burst through drills, most every prospect attending the combine will undergo a physical. These physicals are critical to the evaluation process as a form of risk management for teams, who will move players up and down their boards based on this information alone. Most prospects are healthy and will come through squeaky clean, but occasionally these tests will unearth a previously unreported injury or condition.

Then, teams will decide whether these players — in addition those actively recovering from a college injury — are worth the risk of a high draft pick. Sometimes, as in the case of one-time Arizona tight end and second-round pick Rob Gronkowski — the reward of adding players deemed to be high injury risk is immense. Other times, bad medical information leads directly to a bad pick and wasted draft capital.

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6. Trim your board

The purpose of the combine is to gather more information on prospects and sharpen teams’ decision-making process. But more information should not lead to a bigger board.

By the end of the week, if the Patriots have ruled out a few players based on medicals, interviews or other intel they’ve gathered, it will be a good week. That will allow them to prioritize and pursue the prospects they truly covet, instead of drowning in excess information and uncertainty. That said, under Wolf’s leadership, the Patriots’ draft board this year figures to be longer than years past, when they were known to be among the pickiest teams in the league.