Logan Mankins has started every game since he returned to the Patriots last month. (AP)

FOXBORO — The five most important things you need to know about the Patriots on Thursday:

1. Logan Mankins held court with the media for an extended session on Thursday morning, his first real chat during the week with reporters since he returned in early November from a contract dispute. The left guard, who has started all five games since he’s been back, said he feels “fine,” and said he felt back to normal as soon he stepped on the field to face the Browns, his first game back.

“I felt fine that game. I felt good,” Mankins said, sporting his trademark Fu-Manchu. “Hey — it’s not my first year here. I knew the offense before I got here. I just had to get the physical stuff down.

“I’m happy with the way it’s been going. And this is going to be a big challenge for us this week, Chicago. They have a really good defense. We really admire the way their defense plays, how hard they play. The kind of players that they have.”

Mankins drew a lot of praise from Chicago coach Lovie Smith, who said Thursday on his conference call that Mankins was “one of the best linemen in the game.”

“They continued to win without him, but adding another special player, a special lineman to the mix, has to help your team quite a bit,” said Smith, who shares the same agent with Mankins, Frank Bauer. ”Just look at the video on him.  He’s as tough as there is.  He comes to work every day.  He and I have the same agent, so I know a little bit about him.  Everything is all good, so you want a guy like that on your team.”

Mankins — who said he planned to go sleeveless on Sunday, even with the temperatures expected to dip below freezing with the wind chill — returned the favor on Thursday.

“I don’t know what we could really say about Chicago, other than they’re good all the way around,” he said. “Their defense is really good. They’ve got a good front four and good linebackers, so it’s going to be a tough day on Sunday.”

As a group, the New England offensive line has played well this season, allowing 18 sacks through 12 games. The hits that did come against quarterback Tom Brady on Monday’s game were minimal, and as a group, they more than did their share when it came to keeping the offense moving.

“That’s what we’re supposed to do, so we’re happy when we do it and disappointed when we don’t play well,” he shrugged. “Like I said, Chicago is going to be tough this week, and that’s what we’re focused on right now. We’re not trying to look back and see what we did. We’re looking ahead.”

2. The Patriots practiced in sweats and shells on the lower fields behind Gillette Stadium in absolutely bone-chilling conditions on Thursday afternoon. Not present for the media portion of practice were defensive backs Jonathan Wilhite and Patrick Chung, linebacker Brandon Spikes and defensive linemen Myron Pryor and Mike Wright.

While Wilhite (hip), Pryor (back) and Wright (concussion) have been absent for the better part of the last week with various ailments, it was a surprise to see Chung and Spikes not present. Chung dealt with a knee injury that left him sidelined for two games last month, but didn’t appear to sustain an injury on Monday against the Jets, and was present at the walkthrough on Wednesday. The same is true for Spikes, who saw extended snaps against the Jets and was at the Wednesday afternoon walkthrough.

3. Shayne Graham, who was signed on Nov. 10 after Stephen Gostkowski went on injured reserve, has a relatively smooth first four games with the Patriots. Other than a brief hiccup when he missed an extra point in a win over Pittsburgh, Graham has been perfect, going 19-for-20 on extra points and 5-for-5 on field-goal attempts, including a 41-yarder in Monday’s 45-3 win over the Jets.

While he hasn’t been able to deliver the sort of yardage on kickoffs that Gostkowski did — Gostkowski had 15 touchbacks through eight games before he was injured, while Graham has three in four games with the Patriots — He said there have been no surprises when it comes to kicking in Gillette Stadium, accorded throughout the NFL as one of the tougher places to kick in the league.

“It’s good turf here, so you learn to handle the wind whenever you get it and do what you can with it. It’s been good for me so far,” Graham said. “I have no complaints and probably won’t complain — obviously, I have a dream job, so I’d never complain about it. But you take every kick, kick by kick, and whatever the conditions are you handle them.”

Graham will be kicking on a new surface Sunday at Soldier Field — the Chicago Park District resodded the playing surface late last month, and Sunday’s game will be the first time the Bears have played at home since the turf was replaced. For a kicker, working on a new surface has some challenges.

“It’s just like every time you walk out on the practice field — you never know how worn out and torn up it’s going to be,” he said. “When you have a new surface, both teams have to play on the same field, so you take the time you have before the game to take the right cleats out, to see what gives you the best footing and what type of things you need to do to soften your adjustments or anything to trying to be a little easier on us so you’re not putting so much pressure on your cleats when you’re trying to plant and everything. But you try and adapt to it the best you can. Sometimes it can be really bad, but I’m sure they’ve taken care of it and I’m sure it’ll be in the best possible shape it can be in.”

4. The Patriots secondary continues to be one of the most opportunistic group of defensive backs in the NFL. New England leads the AFC in takeaways with plus-14, and is tied for the lead in the AFC with 18 interceptions. Rookie cornerback Devin McCourty leads the team with six, while veteran safety James Sanders has three. (Both picked off Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez once on Monday night.)

After Monday’s game, McCourty went out of his way to praise the work of defensive backs coach Josh Boyer, and Sanders did the same thing on Thursday.

“He’s helped us a lot. He keeps us constantly aware of the opportunities that present themselves, whether the ball carrier — the guy who is carrying the ball — carries it loose or whatnot,” Sanders said of Boyer. “He does a great job of reminding us that our job is to get the ball for our offense, and we’ve been doing that lately ad we hope to continue to do that.

“We constantly work on [creating turnovers] all the time. If we’re not catching it with the JUGS machine, we’re throwing the ball constantly to each other, just trying to make sure when opportunities present themselves that we capitalize on it. We’ve been doing a great job of doing that lately, this part of the season, and we hope to continue to do that.”

5. Keeping Jay Cutler contained appears to be a big point of emphasis this week for the New England defense. The Chicago quarterback has shown an extraordinary ability to keep plays alive this season with his feet — he’s third on the team in rushing with 201 yards, and has two games where he’s rushed for at last 35 yards this season — and is one of the more mobile signal-callers the Patriots will face this season.

“[It’s] extremely important. He’s a very athletic guy,” Sanders said on Thursday. “There’s times on film where he runs away from DB’s. We’re going to have to keep him in the pocket and limit his scramble plays. And when he does get out of the pocket, we’re going to have to cover these receivers, because he does a good job of uncovering and getting down the field.”

“You never want to let quarterbacks get outside the pocket,” said safety Jarrad Page. “Things just start going haywire at that point. The secondary has to cover a lot longer, whether that’s the DB’s, the linebackers, everybody has to cover their man a lot longer. Quarterbacks get out of the pocket, offenses start to hit big plays down the field. Really, no matter who the quarterback is, if they can get out of the pocket and scramble around and look, it’s going to be tough on the defense. So that’s going to be a key for us each week.”