There are few events more important to the New Orleans Saints’ pre-draft process than the annual Senior Bowl, where coaches and scouts get an opportunity to meet with dozens of draft prospects and see them go through their paces at three days of practices.
Local media caught up with Saints assistant general manager and vice president of college personnel Jeff Ireland this week, who shared his take on a number of topics including players already on the roster and those he’s looking to add. You can find his full media availability session here, but we highlighted some key takeaways:
On drafting and developing more offensive linemen
“Well I think you should add young offensive linemen pretty much every year,” Ireland said. “With Trevor (Penning) and Nick (Saldiveri) in particular they’re really young, developing, high-upside players that we’re looking for. But right now we wish we had a little bit more information on both of them. We wish we could say, ‘These guys, we can plug them in and they can start.’ I don’t know that we can say that right now. What we do feel about both those players is they should compete to start. They should give us real good depth if they don’t get there, but they should compete to start.”
On possibly moving Trevor Penning to a new position
“He’s had one season, he’s from a small school,” Ireland said of the Northern Iowa product. “There’s some things he obviously needs to work at and he knows what those things are. I do feel like there’s too good of an athlete, too strong of player, too many things that he does well that he shouldn’t develop into a good player. Now whether that’s inside, outside, right or left, those are all going to be determined by his coach. We have a real good plan and make sure we get the upside out of him.”
When asked whether he believed Penning could better perform after moving inside to guard, Ireland said that’s a call his position coach would make, but it is something he felt the third-year pro could do if asked. The plan is still to develop him at left tackle. If Penning continues to struggle there a change could be needed.
On Tulane quarterback prospect Michael Pratt
“Yeah Michael’s really smart, very accurate, I would call him more of a pocket passer than a dual-threat guy but he does have legs to move around and improvise, and do some nice things. We have a nice grade on him. He’s a great kid. Willie (Fritz) before he left to go to Houston we had him over in the office and we had a really good evaluation of him.”
Pratt is currently projected to be picked in the second or third rounds, but he could help himself with a strong performance at the Senior Bowl. Matching first-round prospects like Bo Nix and Michael Penix throw-for-throw would go a long way to help teams project his future in the NFL.
On evaluating the 2023 draft class
“I do like last year’s draft. We wish we had a little more information on some of the guys that we drafted, like Nick Saldiveri. We got a good evaluation on Jordan Howden, we got really good evaluation of (Bryan) Bresee. We wish we had gotten a little more of (Isaiah) Foskey, you’d love to see the young quarterback play. Kendre (Miller) splashed there in the last game, we feel really good about him.”
Ireland’s role is the evaluate the players on the roster, so it makes sense that he’s frustrated by players missing time to injuries or rookies playing behind veterans. It’s tough to self-scout when there aren’t many plays on tape.
“Our postseason evaluations we have with our coaching staff, man there’s some really glowing remarks really on all of the guys we drafted. My perspective, going into another draft, you wish you had a little more information to say ‘He is this.’ There’s a little information out there that’s still unknown. We’ll keep developing these guys but we feel really good about all of them.”
On losing Cody Rager to the Denver Broncos
Rager was Ireland’s right-hand man in the college scouting department and would have succeeded him had Ireland left for a general manager position elsewhere around the league. He said: “I’m not throwing up the white towel or anything, goodness gracious. Cody’s a talented young scout. He’s been with me since the Miami days, I’m really excited for him to start a new journey for the Denver Broncos. But we’re going to be just fine. We’ve got a lot of great scouts that we’re elevating up, I look forward to teaching another young guy. But we’re going to be just fine.”
On Pete Carmichael reuniting with Sean Payton
“Yeah, look Pete’s an unbelievable person, an unbelievable coach, we’re going to miss him. He’s meant a lot to me just in terms of how we see things eye to eye. He had a real clear vision for what he’s looking for. I wish him well. I’m not surprised Sean brought him over. That tandem was obviously good for a long, long time. Wish him the best, obviously.”
The best teams have their coaching staffs and scouting departments working hand in hand to evaluate players and forecast their fit in the system; that’s clearly something Ireland felt he and Carmichael did well together. Whoever the Saints hire to replace him must communicate with Ireland and his scouts just as well so the team can look for clean system fits who won’t have to change positions to get on the field.
