Ireland said the Saints draft players on whom they have good information and have formulated a vision.
“When you have to guess about a person or intelligence or where we’re going to play him and things like that — that just leads to not drafting him, basically,” Ireland said. “I think what leads to us understanding more about the player is having the kid on the field, coaches coaching him, being able to interview him, him participating in his pro day, him participating at the Combine.
“The more information we get — that knowledge is power. And the more knowledge we have, the more comfortable we are and the more conviction we have as a staff, collaboratively, to take the player.”
It worked last year, when New Orleans interviewed quarterback Tyler Shough during Senior Bowl week and eventually selected him in the second round, with the 40th overall pick.
“The grade doesn’t jump up and down,” Ireland said. “But what happens here is you really get a good opportunity to size them up, be close to them, really have intimate knowledge of them in a meeting setting. After the practice, you can get to know them a little bit.
“You just get to see them more and then, it creates another level of questioning the next time you see them, or the next time you see them. With Tyler, we came here, we had a really good grade on Tyler, we really liked the exposure to him — it created more interest and more buzz and just more energy in the building… and that grew and so, that’s how it happens.”