Then comes the final vertical stack, which should now be easier to complete thanks to the first two steps. Still, Belichick explained, “You get situations where you see a guy at 65 and you know you'd take him before the guy you have at 51. So who's in the wrong place? The guy at 51 or the guy at 65?"

And that’s where the scouting staff’s work comes in.

Here’s how Belichick breaks down the Patriots’ process.

“First we scout regionally, then we have our scouts who scout nationally come in and look at those players. [The national scouts] will see all the players on offense, defense, east of the Mississippi, west of the Mississippi. Then, by the end of November we break it up and do it positionally. By the time the combine comes [in March], a regional scout, the national scout, a position scout, a position coach and, ultimately, (Vice President of Player Personnel) Scott Pioli and I will look at them. We get six or seven looks at a guy. When we put the whole board together, that's where Scott and I and the national scouts come in and start stacking horizontally."

And even after all that work, there is room for the ultimate decision-maker to exert his authority.

“Sometimes Bill (Polian) gets a feeling,” Colts coach Tony Dungy said. “He had it about Bob Sanders (drafted 44^th in 2004). He had it about Dallas Clark. Pretty soon, when Bill gets a feeling I start to get a feeling too.”

Experience and continuity from scouting to personnel to coaching is indispensable.

“The younger the player, the more question marks. Same with scouting departments,” said Floyd Reese ESPN analyst and former Tennessee Titans GM Floyd Reese.

Slide show   Week in Sports Pictures Pain on the skating rink, flying high on the hardwood, upsets on the football field, and more. more photos

“Anytime you look at a department that is mature and has scouted for a while and can draw from experiences in the past (there’s an advantage). Then you top that off with a GM or decision maker who’s an experienced guy then you’ve got it together. Look right here in Indy, that’s an example. Bill Polian is experienced, Dom Anile experienced, scouts are experienced. Then you look at what they do that bears it out.

"I’ve known Bill Belichick for a long time. He and I started off lining fields together and now he’s a Hall of Fame head coach. There’s not much he’s missed. When it comes to experience and being able to draw from the past and having a person who thinks the same way with Scott (Pioli), that’s hard to beat.”

And that’s what makes those teams hard to beat from September into February.

MORE FROM NFL

NFL Section Front

Texans boot chances to beat rolling Titans PFT: Chargers on rise in latest power rankings PFT: Ryan thinks Patriots ‘disrespected’ Jets PFT: Cooley probably headed for injured reserve Trash Talk: Thanksgiving games are just turkeys PFT: Cowboys downplay Campo-Newman spat   Out of Bounds: Ricky Williams receives remote healing? PFT: Someone hacked Jet’s Twitter account PFT: Roethlisberger ‘appears well enough’ to play PFT: Lions coach takes issue with Mangini NFL Section Front   Add NFL headlines to your news reader: