Now that the Senior Bowl is over and free agency is here, the mock drafts are beginning to really take off. (Some of them are taking off a little farther out than others.)

To find out what everyone is thinking about the Saints, I went to WalterFootball.com's Mock Draft Database, a listing of many, if not most, of the mock drafts on the internet. Using that list, I went through each of the drafts until I got tired of the whole thing, which happened to be right at the beginning of February. I figured anything earlier than that is probably so out-of-date as to be worthless, so I cut it off at 63 mocks. Here are the results:

Bear in mind, a mock draft is just as much about who a team can take as who they will, or should. The vast majority of those compiling these mocks feel certain that the Saints should, and will, take either a cornerback or a linebacker. It's just a matter of who will be available with the 14th pick.

Overall, there's 12 votes for a replacement for Jonathan Vilma. I think this is jumping the gun a bit; but I don't assume these people are actually Saints fans, and don't keep up with the news around here. But I hope we re-sign Vilma, in large part because he's a great player, but also because it will mean we have no reason to draft Laurinaitis--who has been described (with great delicacy and tact, I thought) as having "a tendency to stay blocked."

The later it gets, though, the more I'm intrigued by getting Brian Cushing. I'm starting to think that if we can pick up one defensive back in free agency--either safety or cornerback--and if we can't find a trading partner and must use our 14th pick, we should get Cushing. A stud outside linebacker would pretty well complete our front seven--and we'll just have to trust to Gregg Williams for the rest.