Fair enough. I still don't agree with the clarification, though. We're not on the Seahawks level, for sure. But, offensively, we were as good or better than both of those teams. I'd have to look at overall ST production, but I'd imagine we're pretty close on ST, too. It's our defense that lagged so far behind both of those clubs last season. And the blowout in NOLA makes it pretty hard to believe we can fix it quickly. But it's also the case that the defense we fielded the last half of last season was very different from the scheme we went into the season intending to run. That single high press coverage with at least decent DL pressure is very different from sitting around in zone getting no pressure on Drew Brees. But if you can't get to the QB, and your press CBs are on the bench, and you can't blitz much because you're working with your 5,6,7th options at LB, you're going to look really bad on defense.
We've got to add talent there, we've got to get healthy, and we've got to get to where we can play the scheme we intended to play when we changed DCs. That's a tall order in one offseason, but it doesn't mean we can't get a lot of that done in one offseason and be in good position to address the rest of it next year. The team, as we saw it early in the season last year, was capable of at least competing at a high level. If we improve the pass defense, we can be in the discussion in the NFC, at least. Nobody's going to distract anybody from what's going on in the NFCW, but we could be a team, like the Saints, that's capable of competing relatively quickly.
