Is our offense worth sacrificing to wait for 2017?
 

In the past our offense was the first thing to be fixed before the defense. I just feel we might be trying too hard on defense and our offense is paying for it. I just feel the 2011 offense would win today like it did then. We wasted a opportunity this year with a easy schedule. Yeah guards need to be improved but I don't think its going to be enough for us to get back to being a top ranked passing offense that most defenses and opposing QBs worry about.

Re: Is our offense worth sacrificing to wait for 2017?
 

I'm not following.

We've tried to fix the defense every year. One draft was entirely defense wasn't it?

Re: Is our offense worth sacrificing to wait for 2017?
 

We've whiffed in the draft & FA for a few years now, hence the sorry excuse for a defense now. If you recap the defensive draft since 2009, you'll see why we are the worst defense in the NFL and why we have so much dead money now in FA whiffs to make up for these bad drafts:

2009: 1st Rd Malcolm Jenkins/CB, 4th Rd Chip Vaugh/S & Stanley Arnoux/LB
2010: 1st Rd Patrick Robinson/CB, 4th Rd Al Woods/DT
2011: 1st Rd: Cameron Jorddan/DE, 3rd Rd Martez Wilson/LB & Johnny Patrick/CB, 7th Rd Nate Bussey/LB & Greg Romeus/DE
2012: 3rd Rd Akiem Hicks/DL, 5th Rd Corey White/CB
2013: 7th Rd Rufus Johnson/DE
2014: 2nd Rd Stanley Jean Baptiste/CB, 4th Rd Khairi Fortt/LB, 5th Rd Ronald Powell/LB

Ugly defensive drafts from 2009 to 2014 = bad defense now. Our Front 7 is one of (if not) the worst in the league. We did not invest in our Front 7 between '09-'14 until no earlier than the 3rd Rd in those 6 drafts except Cameron Jordan in the 1dst Rd in 2011. Hot garbage Front 7 = Hot Garbage defense.

Just my opinion...

Re: Is our offense worth sacrificing to wait for 2017?
 

2011:

#1 Offense
#1 Passing Yards/Game
#6 Rushing Yards/Game
#12 Defense

2015:

#2 Offense
#1 Passing Yards/Game
#24 Rushing Yards/Game
#31 Defense

There hasn't been much drop off in offense other than the run game.

Re: Is our offense worth sacrificing to wait for 2017?
 

Either we're drafting the wrong players on defense, or the coaching staff failed in developing them. Maybe a little of both. But I feel very hopeful w the two young LBs and with Breaux. We still need a stud D lineman and a stud safety.

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Re: Is our offense worth sacrificing to wait for 2017?
 

Defense is the first priority, in my opinion, but as far as those stats go... Here's the only thing that matters.

2011 Offense - 34.2 PPG
2015 Offense - 25.5 PPG

Our offense is alright right now, but that's an enormous drop off. Pure stats discount a lot of factors, on their own merit, and do not provide any perspective. Sometimes the numbers match the performance, and sometimes they don't come close. I say it all the time, and if you ever needed an example there is none better than the above.

When you're just throwing it around, and desperately trying to keep up, you tend to pile up yards. But when you're predictable like that, your drives will often stall, leading to the huge discrepancy in points per game. Also, when you're ahead late in games, you want to run the clock out, whereas from behind you are often getting garbage yards.

There's no question that, aside from what we did against the Panthers in the dome, we haven't had an offense that can compete with top defenses like it used to.

Re: Is our offense worth sacrificing to wait for 2017?
 

no

enough is enough and we have only added to the chance our 30 million dollar man ends up injured.

Re: Is our offense worth sacrificing to wait for 2017?
 

No more sacrificing the offense, Brees had to work with a scrap O line last season, it made him miss his first game since joining us.

Re: Is our offense worth sacrificing to wait for 2017?
 

Doesn't matter how good the offense is,if we dont get better at rushing the passer we wont win enough games. We need another guard or two but without getting a pair of DT,a DE and OLB we are not making forward steps

Re: Is our offense worth sacrificing to wait for 2017?
 

On offense, Sean Payton can make Chicken Salad out of Chicken ****

On defense, we've been making Chicken **** out of Chicken Salad.

We really only need a couple of key pieces on each side of the ball to field an elite team. We just need to find the right fit.

Re: Is our offense worth sacrificing to wait for 2017?
 

I have always been against point per game being the accurate measure of offense.

Score points is a team effort including defense and special teams. Better starting field position along with defensive and special team scoring plays a big factor in PPG.

The YPG measure can also be skewed, worse teams will have more garbage time yards, pick your poison I guess.

Re: Is our offense worth sacrificing to wait for 2017?
 

Agreed, thats why its difficult to analyze anything with a singular stat.

Great passing teams may have a high yard per rush because they run a lot of draws that can skew the YPC stat, and vice versa.

Bend but don't break defenses give up a lot of yards, but their PPG is low.
Attacking defenses may have low PPG but give up more big plays.

Unfortunately in our case we rank near dead last in every meaningful defensive stat.:(

Re: Is our offense worth sacrificing to wait for 2017?
 

I think "Total Defense" should be an average rank of...

Points against per game (given up by the defense only)
Yards against per game
Yards against per play
3rd down conversion %
Yards per rush
Yards per pass
Penalty yards
Takeaways
Red zone TD%
Red zone FG %
Red zone stops

I'll bet if you averaged every teams rank in those categories you'd truly see how good or bad your defense is.

I'm pretty sure we'd still rank last.

Re: Is our offense worth sacrificing to wait for 2017?
 

I think Fontenot is in charge of pro scouting. I'm not sure if he does a bad job or if the FO does a bad job of informing the scouts of a clearly defined plan. We brought in a new head college scout last year I believe and we drafted much better. Especially on defense which is where Jeff Ireland has the credentials to show that last year wasn't a fluke and he can evaluate talent.