The defense must be better than last year. But how much improvement is needed? Of the past 24 super bowl teams, 14 fielded top-ten defenses, and only six teams were ranked worse than 16th. But, of those same 24 teams, 15 had top-ten offenses, with six having the best overall offense. You can see our Fanshot for a further breakdown of these type of stats.

But, I think this shows that our defense only needs to become respectable - i.e. an average defense. Because our offense is so prolific, we don't need to rely upon our defense too much. If it can generate some pressure and not give up the big plays that plagued us last season, I think the defense will be good enough. And early returns out of training camp point to an improvement in these areas.

What do you think?