How pointless is yards as a measuring stick of team?

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

#1 seed in the AFC has the #32 ranked defense based on yards.
#1 seed in the NFC has the #31 ranked defense based on yards. 

Both are tied #14 if you go by points which is what really matters. 

[masterfins]

If you have an Ultra Powerful offense, you don't need defense.

[Dave Gray]

More than that, the pace of a game dictates yardage.  If you score a lot of points, your opponent has to pass more and take offensive risks.  Also, your defense softens to start to allow for clock.  It's not really a great indicator of a game or quality of a team.

[BigDaddyFin]

It's another stat that can be as misleading as it is valid.  For example, if you have a team that goes a full year and doesn't give up 1000 rushing yards, and they've only given up about 3000 yards passing, that's the sign of a pretty dominant defense.

But if you're giving up 500 yards a game and you're winning games 38-17, then it's a bit misleading.

[MikeO]

Defense in general is now overrated. The whole "Defense wins Championships" hasn't been true in a long time.  The rules are so slanted to the offense that it is getting to the point where there isn't much sense in putting big money into a defense. It's sad but true. The great teams that have won or played in the Super Bowl in the last 4 or 5 years or so.

Indy (Twice)
Saints
Arizona
Pitt (Twice)
Pats
Giants
GB


All have elite QB's or offenses and mediocre to bad defenses. The ONLY 2 teams that can claim to having a good defense in that group were the Giants and Pittsburgh. And Pitt had terrible corners and a bad secondary to be honest. Their front 7 was great their secondary has been bad for a while.

Load up as much as you can on offense, spend the majority of your salary cap room there and try and just get by with a decent defense. Just give me a bunch of speed guys on defense that can chase guys down when they get beat, because EVERYONE gets beat on defense so you might as well have speed to recover and make a tackle. That's the formula for success in the today's NFL.

[CF DolFan]

I remember years ago people talking about how good our run defense was.  The truth was our pass defense sucked so bad no one needed to run on us but to people who just looked at the stats had no clue.

[BigDaddyFin]

More important I think than yards given up the way the game is going now is can you rush the passer?  Give even a mediocre quarterback all day in the pocket and he'll pick your defense apart. 

Outside of that, the only stat that really matters is points allowed.