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BY MATTHEW PARAS | Staff writer 4 hrs ago

MOBILE, Ala. — For years, Jeff Ireland scouted players with an understanding of what Sean Payton liked. Even when the former New Orleans Saints coach departed in 2022, his offensive system remained in place and that gave Ireland, New Orleans’ assistant general manager and college scouting director, a frame of reference for what types of prospects would best fit.

This offseason, Ireland could be starting from scratch.

The Saints do not currently have an offensive coordinator, which provides a wrinkle in how Ireland and his staff go about the draft process. As members of New Orleans’ front office gathered at the Senior Bowl this week, they did so without a concrete offensive system in place — leaving the process arguably more open-ended than in past years.

Speaking with reporters, Ireland said the Saints are still in a “gathering information mode” and aren’t “there yet” when it comes to linking prospects with certain schemes. The Senior Bowl gives teams the first real chance to meet with a wide variety of players during the annual draft cycle, which helps fuel information.

But eventually, Ireland said, the Saints will have to draft with the new coordinator in mind. Whoever that turns out to be.

“Obviously you do,” Ireland said. “You tailor it to what he’s looking for. There may be an offensive blocking run scheme that we’re looking at, and that usually generates a different type of player that we’re looking for. Maybe a little more athletic vs. a bulky guy in the middle. Receivers change, tight ends change, whether we’re playing with a fullback or not.

“So, yeah, it can definitely change a little bit of the landscape of what kind of a player we’re looking for, because we want that player to schematically fit on offense. Just like we do on defense.”

For now, the Saints have explored all types of candidates and schemes as they search for an offensive coordinator. New Orleans has interviewed at least 11 candidates, with more than half containing ties to either San Francisco 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan or Los Angeles Rams coach Sean McVay.

If the Saints’ next coordinator comes from the Shanahan-McVay tree, New Orleans will need players who can shine athletically but are big enough to deploy the sort of heavier personnel sets that have become a staple of their offenses. In the run game, Shanahan’s 49ers have relied on wide zone run plays, while McVay’s Rams pivoted to a power-gap scheme this past season.

But the Saints’ search has included coaches from all kinds of backgrounds. Baltimore Ravens wide receivers coach Greg Lewis not only helped his players excel in Todd Monken’s offense that featured plenty of three-receiver sets, but he also coached under Kansas City’s Andy Reid, who runs a West Coast-based offense. Saints quarterbacks coach Ronald Curry, an internal option, would provide continuity in Payton’s offense.

During the draft process, Ireland says the Saints go from evaluating a pool of prospects to “trimming the fat,” meaning they then narrow down what scheme they might be best suited for along the way.

“We're ready to strike,” Ireland said, “whether we understand the kind of players that they are. So when a player doesn't fit well, he just kind of goes into a different box of maybe not fitting exactly what the offensive coordinator is looking for, so maybe this player does. That's kind of how we go about it.”


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