Does granting permission to interview mean that Ireland can accept if the Bears offer him the position or would the Saints still need to agree to let him go?
I think they more or less have to let him interview/go if the position is a higher position than the one he has here. But, I'm hopeful that even an interview doesn't mean his is gone. I mean, they managed to get Ryan Nielson back last year even after he agreed to be D-Coordinator at LSU.
But, I do think this will either force the Saints to promote Ireland to GM with Loomis becoming President of Football Operations or something like that. Or, letting Ireland go. I hope Ireland doesn't go and he has done a great job overall in the draft, but it's not a disaster if he does go. We still have Payton, Loomis, and the Scouts. And, sometimes brining in another guy with a fresh set of eyes helps in player evaluation. I think that was part of Ireland's early success. With his fresh eyes coming from the outside, he could probably see why we were making some of the mistakes we made in the past in player evaluation.