By Luke Johnson, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
BATON ROUGE — The lead up to the 2019 NFL draft has been a bit more challenging than other recent years for Jeff Ireland, the New Orleans Saints’ assistant general manager and college scouting director.
The work hasn’t changed, the pre-draft process still requiring an exhaustive understanding of the hundreds of available prospects in this year’s draft, but the resources on hand are what makes this a little difficult this year.
Through a handful of trades made in the 2018 season, the Saints currently hold only one pick — No. 62 overall — in the first four rounds of the draft.
That makes things tougher. But the work, like traveling to places like LSU Friday (March 22) for Pro Day to watch players perform physical testing and drills, helps him make sure he is prepared to pull the trigger on the right player when his opportunity finally comes.
“We’re going to evaluate every player that we can possibly get our eyes on, we’re going to build the board exactly the same way we always have,” Ireland said.
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