Bill Belichick's annual scouting trips are well documented, but he's far from the only New England Patriots coach on the road gathering information on this year's draft prospects. Everyone from Belichick to his son Steve are hard at work.

As Tom Pelissero of USA Today chronicles in a first-person account with Kansas linebacker Ben Heeney, Steve Belichick was recently on Kansas' campus to get to know Heeney.

"I just had a private workout Friday morning with the New England Patriots. They sent Bill Belichick's son, Steve Belichick, who's on staff there. It was just a quick, 20-minute workout on the field and then we went inside and watched film," Heeney says, via Pelissero.

The Patriots privately work out hundreds of prospects, so it's dangerous to read much into this type of thing. It's part of the information-gathering process and when we hear about the team privately meeting with a player, it is used as a springboard to learn more about the player ourselves.

Henney (6-foot-0 1/4, 231 pounds) has a few marks on his résumé off the field (per ESPN.com Insider, he was arrested and charged with DUI racing on highway in July of 2011; also cited for misdemeanor battery related to an incident at a Lawrence, Kansas, bar in January of 2013), but was also a team captain as a junior and senior. He's an undersized linebacker relative to the Patriots' scheme, but while he lacks some ideal physical traits for the position, he showed a knack for producing tackles for a loss last season.

ESPN.com's Insider ranks Heeney as the 13th-best linebacker prospect in this year's draft.