It was dubbed an ‘Extreme Makeover’ last season and has since undergone another significant overhaul.

So as we begin the fourth installment of our positional preview series heading into the opening of training camp on Sunday, we ask for some assistance:

Just what, exactly, do you call an extreme makeover of an extreme makeover?

An Extreme Makeover, Part Deux?

An Extreme Makeover, The Sequel?

An Extreme Makeover, This Time for Real?

There’s no dancing around the issue here: no other position group on the Bombers depth chart has seen so much upheaval over the past couple of seasons as the defensive line.

Consider that a year ago, the team was saying farewell to veterans Bryant Turner Jr., Zach Anderson and Greg Peach in an effort to become bigger, meaner and quicker up front.

Those exits led to the arrivals of defensive tackles Euclid Cummings and Keith Shologan in CFL free agency via the Toronto Argonauts and Ottawa REDBLACKS.

And now, after just one season, those two have also moved on – Cummings to the Edmonton Eskimos; Shologan to the Montreal Alouettes – after a year in which the Bombers surrendered the most yards in the CFL (407.9 per game) and were just sixth versus the run (88.6 yards per game) and dead last in passing yardage (335.2 yards per game).

Now all of this is hardly to suggest Cummings and Shologan were the main reasons for the giant chunks of yardage surrendered – defence is a team thing, after all – but it does speak of the club’s ongoing efforts trying to find the right pieces to fit defensive coordinator Richie Hall’s scheme.

The changes at the defensive tackle positions will continue in 2017 with Drake Nevis – a 6-2, 301-pound product of Louisiana State University – added in free agency after one season with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in which he finished with five sacks and 29 tackles in 14 games. Veteran Jake Thomas, meanwhile, will likely share time at the other tackle position with 2017 first-overall draft choice Faith Ekakitie of the University of Iowa.

Jamaal Westerman will be back for a third season at one defensive end position and look to build on his quarterback sack totals in 2015-16. Westerman has 25 sacks over the last two years, tied for the fifth-highest back-to-back totals in club history after Tyrone Jones (39 in 1983-84 and 32 in 1984-85), Tony Norman (29 in 1984-85) Elfrid Payton (28 in 1992-93) and Jones again (25 in 1986-87).

But it’s the piece the Bombers have added at the end position opposite Westerman that could be massive in their attempt to become an absolute nightmare for opposition quarterbacks. Tristan Okpalaugo returns to the Canadian Football League after chasing the NFL dream with the Arizona Cardinals in 2016.

Okpalaugo (6-6, 250) was one of the league’s best pass rushers before his exit, registering 22 sacks in 36 games with the Argos in 2014-15. He was also the East Division’s Most Outstanding Rookie in 2014.

His addition is especially significant given the revolving door at the position over the past two years. In 2016, Justin Cole started 11 games opposite Westerman, while Shayon Green made six starts and Adrian Hubbard one. Two years that spot featured Greg Peach (11 starts), Derrell Johnson (4), Thaddeus Gibson (2) and Cole (1).

The Bombers also have some other interesting defensive line pieces that – given their credentials and the turnover at the position over the last couple of years – could muscle their way into the discussion.

Athletic freak Trent Corney, the club’s first pick in 2016, and Green – the former University of Miami starter – both return for their sophomore seasons at end, along with Jackson Jeffcoat, who starred at Texas before turning pro. In the mix at tackle along with Nevis, Thomas and Ekakitie will be Padric Scott, who spent most of last year on the practice roster but was impressive in his one start, and Canadians Rupert Butcher, a 6-5, 320-pound mountain who returned to school after attending camp last year and was a U Sports All-Canadian, and 2017 draft pick Ian Marouf.

That’s a pile of new faces in new places along the defensive front. What the Bombers crave now is for that D-line turnstile to stop spinning.

IMPACT NEWCOMER

The signing of defensive end Tristan Okpalaugo flew a bit under the CFL radar this winter, coming as it did days before the free agent market opened. But if the Bombers get their wish, it won’t be long before his name is mentioned as one of the shrewdest offseason additions across the CFL. Okpalaugo’s arrival should mean more pressure off the edge for a Bomber defence that already has sack machine Jamaal Westerman working from the other end position. That could result in less of the big-yardage ‘explosion’ plays the defence gave up a year ago.

X-FACTOR

It’s hard to know what kind of impact first-overall pick Faith Ekakitie might provide, but the big Iowa defensive tackle was seen by some draft gurus as the most pro-ready prospect of the bunch. He was primarily a run-stopping specialist with the Hawkeyes and figures to be part of a rotation of players who will get snaps at the Canadian defensive tackle spot alongside Drake Nevis.

JUICY NUMBER

The Bombers were sixth-best against the run last year, surrendering 88.6 yards per game. Those numbers represent a steady climb: Winnipeg was dead last in rushing yards against in 2014 (135.9) and seventh in 2015 (112.8).

This is the fourth in a position-by-position training-camp preview series by bluebombers.com.

Previously:

Special teams
Defensive backs
Linebackers

The rest of our camp previews are scheduled as follows:

Offensive line, May 25
Running backs, May 26
Receivers, May 27
Quarterbacks, May 28