Making changes: Saints defense may be most improved unit in NFL

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JACKSON, Miss. -- Of all the remodeling jobs an NFL offseason invariably brings to rosters around the league, I think I like the extensive -- but not necessarily expensive -- work done on the Saints defense best of all.

Compared to its beleaguered 2007 counterparts, New Orleans on defense this season should be faster, more athletic, deeper, with a greatly enhanced pass rush and much less propensity to give up the big play in the secondary. At least that's the idea. It's a little early for regular-season pronouncements, but from what I've seen so far the Saints defense is my easy pick to be the most improved unit in the NFL in '08.

Of course, that's partly because there's plenty to improve upon. New Orleans' defense rightly received most of the blame last season for the Saints -- a popular preseason NFC Super Bowl favorite -- slipping back to 7-9, despite a high-scoring offense that ranked fourth overall and third in passing. The shorthand in 2007 said with quarterback Drew Brees topping 4,000 yards passing for a second year in a row, it was largely the 26th-ranked defense's inability to pull its weight that sentenced the rollercoaster-riding Saints to a losing record and all those unmet expectations.

All of which made the focus of New Orleans's offseason crystal clear: Fix the defense, at least enough to the point where it allows the offense to provide the difference between winning and losing in an unpredictable NFC South that has never featured a repeat champion in its six seasons of existence.

Or as new Saints middle linebacker Jonathan Vilma put it to me one day recently in the team's training camp cafeteria at Millsaps College, speaking on behalf of the team's re-tooled defense: "We don't want to be the reason the Saints are losing 45-34.''

I'd be shocked if that's the fate of this year's Saints defense, with New Orleans making a conscious effort to jack up its pass rush. The belief is that will cure many of the ills that plagued its shoddy, 30th-ranked pass defense, which surrendered 245.3 yards per game last season, 32 touchdown passes and a whopping 54 completions of 20-plus yards.

"You have to get to the passer in this league,'' said Saints head coach Sean Payton, who admits he became convinced of what his team needed to do while watching the Giants defensive line overwhelm the Patriots' pass protection in the Super Bowl. "You just have to. If you can affect the passer, first off your secondary gets better. And that's important. When we looked at the offseason and talked about where we needed to improve, we knew there were some pieces missing on defense.''

The Saints believe they acquired one of those pieces in free agency, luring defensive end Bobby McCray -- an underrated and athletic third-down rush specialist who posted a 10-sack season as recently as 2006 -- from Jacksonville. They got another in the draft, when they aggressively traded up from No. 10 to New England's No. 7 spot to out-maneuver No. 9 Cincinnati for Southern Cal's play-making defensive tackle Sedrick Ellis.

The two moves give the Saints the potential to emulate the Giants' versatile and pass-rush-rich defensive line that everybody in the league suddenly envies. In its all-important nickel package, New Orleans now plans to have the speedy and lean McCray creating pressure off the edge from the left side, with starting left end Charles Grant shifting inside to tackle on passing downs. Next to him inside will be Ellis, whose pocket-collapsing skills at USC made him much more than a run-stuffing tackle, while the team's premier pass rusher, 2006 Pro Bowl pick Will Smith, will stay on the field at all times at right end.

Rotating in at tackle in order to keep both Grant and Ellis fresh will be veterans Brian Young, Kendrick Clancy and Hollis Thomas, giving the Saints more depth and more options in an effort to make their pass rush a four-quarter-long race to the quarterback (although Thomas this week underwent surgery for a right triceps injury and could be lost for up to two months). Again, the game-changing heat that the Giants brought last season, with their seemingly endless supply of pass rushers, was the model for the Saints, who finished with just 32 sacks last season (ranking 19th overall).