saintsfan1976

Although teams rarely tip their hat here, I always find the list of pre-draft candidate interviews to be intriguing.

Remember Robert Meachem saying he was "surprised" the Saints drafted him first as they never even spoke with him?

Teams often stay away from players they covet but do use the time to gather information about other players.

Regardless, we have a list of guys the team has shown at least some level of interest in.

Here's some of the guys who were interviewed in 2011:

Texas CB Curtis Brown (National Football Post)
USC TE Jordan Cameron (Times-Picayune)
Fresno State DE Chris Carter (Pro Football Talk)
Syracuse RB Delone Carter (National Football Post)
Tulsa TE Charles Clay (National Football Post)
Southeastern Louisiana S Tommy Connors (NewOrleans.com)
TCU QB Andy Dalton (FoxSports.com)
Illinois WR Jarred Fayson (National Football Post)
Washington linebacker Mason Foster (National Football Post)
Millsaps WR Michael Galatas (Times-Picayune)
LSU S Daniel Graff (Times-Picayune)
Oklahoma State RB Kendall Hunter (National Football Post, Pro Football Talk)
Alabama RB Mark Ingram (Times-Picayune)
California DE Cameron Jordan (Pro Football Talk, FoxSports.com)
Northwestern State S Lance Lacoste (NewOrleans.com)
Appalachian State S Mark LeGree (Pro Football Talk)
LSU DT Drake Nevis (Times-Picayune)
South Alabama WR Courtney Smith (Pro Football Talk)
Colorado CB Jimmy Smith (National Football Post)
North Carolina LB Quan Sturdivant (National Football Post)
Baylor DT Phil Taylor (Pro Football Talk)
Virginia Tech QB Tyrod Taylor (Pro Football Talk)
Southern Arkansas DT Cedric Thornton (Pro Football Talk)
Temple DT Muhammad Wilkerson (NFL Network, Pro Football Talk)

This year's list so far:
From Walter Football as of 2/23/13

SR - Senior Bowl meeting.
EW - East-West Shrine meeting.
COM - Combine meeting.
INT - Interested.
VINT - Very Interested.
* - indicates more than one meeting.
# - indicates meeting set up outside of the 2013 Senior Bowl or the 2013 East-West Shrine Game


New Orleans Saints:
Josh Boyd, DL, Mississippi State (EW)
Aaron Dobson, WR, Marshall (SR)
Tyrone Goard, WR, Eastern Kentucky (EW)
Zaviar Gooden, LB, Missouri (SR)
Corey Grissom, DL, South Florida (SR)
Demontre Hurst, CB, Oklahoma (EW)
Zach Line, RB, SMU (EW)
TJ McDonald, DB, USC (SR)
Bradley McDougald, S, Kansas (EW)
Leon McFadden, DB, San Diego State (SR)
Aaron Mellette, WR, Elon (SR)
Christine Michael, RB, Texas A&M (EW) (VINT)
Chris Pantale, TE, Boston College (EW)
Trent Steelman, WR, Army (EW)
Cooper Taylor, S, Richmond (EW)
Chase Thomas, LB, Stanford (SR)
Brandon Williams, DL, Missouri Southern (SR)
Terrance Williams, WR, Baylor (SR)
Tyler Wilson, QB, Arkansas (SR)

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I keep seeing Christine Michael from A&M pop up on interviews. Wonder if teams are already getting scoop on Manziel?

Chase Thomas would fit nicely in Ryan's scheme.