As bad as our defense was this past year, we could turn it around with just a few players, as long as they were the right ones taught by the right coaches.

No matter who our GM or head coach is, I really would like to see us move to a more aggressive, attacking defense instead of the passive cover-2. We'll have to wait and see whether that happens this year or not.

Personnel-wise, we might not be that far away. Two key free agent signings to shore up our weakest areas might go a long way to going from horrible to decent, which is the easiest leap to take.

Should we go after a couple of young vet free agents for the defense? If so, who?

I like Jonathan Vilma at MLB (if he is available) and Terrell Suggs at DE. Vilma is 26, rookie of the year in 2004, led the NFL in tackles with 173 in 2005, 132 this year. He averages about 8 tackles per game and makes a lot of plays. He's played both in a 3-4 and a 4-3. Suggs is also only 26, a 3-time Pro Bowler, has played OLB in a 3-4 and DE in a 4-3 and is a solid pass rusher.

They would fill two gaping holes, and make the other players around them better by comanding the attention of the offense and getting double-teamed.They won't come cheap, but if we could land them that would go a long way to shore up some gaping holes and keep us from having to spend two or three more first-day draft picks on defense this year. (We'll still need to spend at least one either way though.)