Mobile, Ala. – The New Orleans Saints coaches, scouts and front office personnel are technically a little behind on their evaluation process for the upcoming NFL Draft.

But that's not necessarily a negative.

Five Saints coaches lead the American team that will play the National team in the Panini Senior Bowl on Saturday at Hancock Whitney Stadium in Mobile, Ala. And four Saints staffers helped coach at the East-West Shrine Bowl, which was played Tuesday night in Frisco, Texas.

"The league asks you to submit names of guys that would like to coach in these all-star games and we submit a list," Executive Vice President/General Manager Mickey Loomis said Wednesday between Senior Bowl practices. "You expect one or two to get picked and we had nine picked, total, between the Senior Bowl and the East-West Shrine Game.

"And it is a good advantage for us, because we get a lot of good information on the players that are here that they coach. It's a good experience for our staff and good for our personnel department."

And good for the draft process.

"We get a lot of information on the team that they're coaching, and they do a little crossover so they'll get information on the other team as well," Saints Senior VP/Assistant General Manager of College Personnel Jeff Ireland said.

"But really, our main focus this week (at the Senior Bowl) has been on the (National) team, because we trust what our coaches are going to give us (from the American team). We've got five coaches on that staff, so we're going to really focus on the National team from a character and makeup and intelligence standpoint, and we're going to trust our coaches that they got good information on the team they're coaching."

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 40^th 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."

FOLLOW THE PATH

Ireland said he sees similarities between New England's rise from consecutive 4-13 seasons to a 14-3 record and Super Bowl appearance this season, and how the Saints are hoping to build off a 6-11 finish last season.

It begins with young quarterbacks — Drake Maye is in his second season, while Shough just finished his rookie year — and extends to new coaching staffs (Mike Vrabel in New England, Kellen Moore with the Saints) and youthful rosters that can be developed.

"Man, I hope so," Ireland said. "That'd be fantastic. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't thinking it already. You hope that that's our opportunity. We have a really great, smart coaching staff. We've got a really impressive young man at the quarterback position, a good, young nucleus of players around him. So, we hope that's us."