New Orleans Saints Executive Vice President/General Manager Mickey Loomis
February 20, 2015

How far along are you in your offseason plan?

"It is still pretty early.  This is one of the early steps in the process with these college guys.  We are doing interviews, watching workouts and collecting data and information right now.  Obviously that is separate from free agency that is coming up here at the beginning of March."

How many interviews with players have you conducted so far?

"There are two phases of that, the first phase is the in-room formal interviews that we do.  We get 60 of those.  We've done a bunch the last two nights.  We will do some more tonight, tomorrow night and Sunday night, and then there is also an opportunity for our coaches and scouts to grab players in more of a free-for-all circumstance at the hotel.  We will get another 100 there, probably, maybe even a few more than that.  That is more of an informal setting than our in-room interviews though."

Has the process been smooth with the addition of Jeff Ireland?

"Yes, absolutely. Those guys, Terry (Fontenot), I knew he was ready for more and he stepped up, and I would say he has exceeded expectations.  And Jeff (Ireland), who I have known for a long time but haven't worked with before, he has stepped right in and we haven't skipped a beat and I like the fact that he comes at it a little different perspective and ideas.  I think it has been real good."

Are there any positions a little deeper in this draft?

"I don't know if I can say that yet, we are still collecting information, but we are going to have an opportunity to get some good players in this draft so it'll be up to us."

How in-depth do you look at players and say this is a guy that we are going to go after as opposed to well maybe he will be there later if we go after a free agent to fill that position?

"I think that our approach has always been, lets fill as many as our holes and 'musts' as we can in free agency so we can have the opportunity to have more of a free reign, if you will, once we get to the draft.  That doesn't always work. You are always looking to fill positions and yet we have to be able to take the players that we have with the grade the highest and hopefully get a position with need. It doesn't always work that way, but they do go hand in hand."

How close are you to be where you want to be with the salary cap?

"We've got a ways to go yet we are on our way with that.  We've got a few things done and we have a few more things to accomplish, but I like the progress we've made."