INDIANAPOLIS — With the start of free agency fast approaching, New Orleans Saints management has a checklist and a plan in place to get the franchise back on track after a 7-9 season, general manager Mickey Loomis said Wednesday.

Loomis told the New Orleans Times-Picayune at the NFL Combine workouts that the Saints, who are well above the projected salary cap for 2015, have about 20 items they’ll try to click off in order to get the team back in the postseason.

“We’re going to have a list of 20 things, give or take a few, that we want to get accomplished in this offseason,” Loomis told the paper. “Fifteen or 16 of them are before the draft, and then, there are four or five things we’d like to get accomplished in the course of the draft. I don’t think that’s different.”

Many items on their list could be checked off by restructuring contracts — including converting some salaries to bonuses, which could bring their cap figure down in a hurry.

“I wouldn’t call it easy, yet we know what our plan is,” Loomis said. “And we’ve known what it’s going to be for quite some time — in terms of just getting under the cap.”

Loomis said he wants to look at his team critically, yet doesn’t want to overreact to failing to get the job done when it had a chance to win the NFC South title in the final month of the season.

“Every year we’ve got to look at our team with a critical eye and try not to be swayed by the emotional investment we have in any given team,” he said. “That’s true whether you’re 11-5 or 7-9.

“Obviously, we’ve got a different feeling after 7-9 and not living up to expectations I think we all had coming into last season. But we have to be careful about not letting those highs and lows — and obviously last season was a bit of a low — interfere with what our mind tells us we need to do.”

One good thing for Loomis and the cap-strapped Saints is they don’t have to try and re-sign a megastar like quarterback Drew Brees in 2012 and All-Pro tight end Jimmy Graham last spring and summer.

The biggest name on their list of potential unrestricted free agents is Pro Bowl running back Mark Ingram.

The Saints would like Ingram back after he rushed for a career-high 964 yards and nine touchdowns last season, but they declined to pick up a fifth-year option for him last summer as a former first-round draft pick and he’ll likely check out the market.

Payton said both sides were figuring out his market value in advance of free agency.

In an interview with the team’s website, Payton said, “Now, it’s just figuring out, ‘Where’s that (salary) number going to be for him?’

“I’m sure if you’re Mark and Mark’s agent, you’re looking closely at it. Hopefully, he’s someone that’s back in the Black and Gold because he’s been big part of our success offensively.”

Payton said Ingram, who went to the Pro Bowl, had a “fantastic season.”

“He’s a player we look at and have a value for. … He’s our draft pick,” Payton said. “I couldn’t be more excited to see him have success. You see the work he puts in behind the scenes. You see the preparation, the professionalism.”