There defense was the reason they were always in shootouts most the season. I'm not saying Joe doesn't help but the offense is miles ahead of the defense in terms of talent.
Exactly. You can't rebuild the defense when you're paying one dude 1/6 of your salary cap. Tear it down, have a primarily defensive draft and they wouldn't be any worse than they were, but they'd have a defense on rookie contracts while their O is on 2nd contracts. The Rams rebuilt their defense with this exact strategy.