Saints' Payton: Team wants to keep Ingram, Byrd close to 100 percent

New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton was at the Dallas Mavericks-New Orleans Pelicans game Monday night and shed light on the status of a few key Saints players.

First, he stated that safety Jairus Byrd, who tore his lateral meniscus in October, is well on his way to recovery.

"He's doing well." Payton told FOX Sports sideline reporter Jennifer Hale. "His rehab's on schedule. He’ll be cleared for mini-camp. We're really looking at about two or three weeks away from him being 100 percent."

Payton went on to discuss impending free agent running back Mark Ingram and his future with the team.

"I spoke with him today. The good thing about Mark is that we're real close with his agent. We work a lot with Joel (Segal). Mickey will talk with him quite a bit. Obviously he's someone that we want to keep. Hopefully we can do that."

Ingram has expressed his desire to remain with the Saints but will draw interest on the open market after finishing 2014 with 964 yards and nine touchdowns in 13 games.

The Super Bowl-winning coach also indicated the team would take a  look at some of the veterans who have been released in the last week: 

So we'll have a few players coming in even as early as this week. But I think more important is how the draft stacks up at certain positions. I think specifically there will be a few defensive players we want to look at whether they come the first week of free agency or later on.