Offensively yes the roster is worse but defensively it's better.
Maxwell was the top rated corner in FA, can't fault going after him. They also tried to sign McCourty who would have helped. Jenkins was a great free agency signing, Thurmond was also a good pick up. Hicks and Rowe look like solid draft picks. The misses have mostly been on offence. Should have paid to keep Maclin.
We're not actually really much stronger in defense than we were. Our defense continues to allow historically bad amounts of TD passes. We got absolutely gashed in the ground a number of times.
I asked the other week which defensive stars have we got now that we didn't have. Jenkins and Barwin as quality FAs.
We drafted Hicks. Great. Logan perhaps. Two good starters in three years?
Really, it's questionable whether we made the right call going to the 3-4. Our supposed young impact players are still best fit in the 4-3. Cox was great this year, but would be an all time great as a 4-3 pass rushing DT (and it will be interesting to see whether he wants to stay in our system or go chase the sacks in a friendlier system). Graham better suited to a 4-3 end. Curry better suited to 4-3 end.
We've ultimately failed to develop an impact pass rushing LB in three years. If it weren't for Hicks we'd have failed to draft any quality LBs at all.
Three years is enough time to develop a quality defense. We haven't done it. We missed on crucial picks like Smith.
If you want to know why, you need to look at the things that Chad has identified. We used draft picks to plug holes that we created. A second, a third, and a first to cover WR, which was a self created wound. That's a lot of resource that could have been put into, I don't know, offensive line and pass rushers?