Saints Nation: Curtis Lofton Could Transform Saints' Defense

Tackling, lack of pressure, poor run defense, spotty coverage... all things the Saints struggled with a year ago. There's pretty much no facet of the defense that I would have considered "strong" with regards to the 2011 Saints. They did do a good job of getting off the field on third down, and they did well to close out some games with big plays (at Tennessee and at Atlanta come to mind), but they never really excelled in any area at all. In fact, they were particularly poor in many. Part of that was the horrific play of their linebackers. Jonathan Vilma was injured all year and a shell of his former self when he did play, Will Herring was never healthy, Jonathan Casillas was often banged up, Jo-Lonn Dunbar was a massive liability in coverage, and Martez Wilson was too raw and young to be trusted. The Saints clearly recognized the lack of performance, proven by their mass addition of linebackers in Curtis Lofton, David Hawthorne and Chris Chamberlain this offseason. A...