Sometimes even McDonald’s switches out the Big Mac and McNuggets on its giant picture advertisements and throws up a giant McRib.

In the same way — OK, so maybe it’s not a perfect analogy — Mizzou’s defense should be very successful again this fall, albeit with a different catalyst.

Aside from E.J. Gaines and Andrew Wilson, the majority of Missouri’s best defensive players during its time in the SEC have been linemen. More specifically, defensive ends.

The defense could carry the team to contention in the SEC East again this fall, but the linebackers and defensive backs will deserve more credit this go-round.

Shane Ray, Markus Golden, Kony Ealy and Michael Sam all got drafted in ’14 or ’15, earning a pair of SEC Defensive Player of the Year honors between the four of them. Marcus Loud, one of the two backups last season groomed to replace Ray and Golden, got booted from the team following spring practice for an unspecified reason.

The defensive line won’t be weak. Harold Brantley, Charles Harris and a strong supporting cast will pressure quarterbacks and baffle their share of offensive linemen. But as a position group, the unit could be relegated to at least co-star status.

That bodes well for Barry Odom in his first season as Missouri’s defensive coordinator.

There are others, but the quartet of Kentrell Brothers, Michael Scherer, Aarion Penton and Kenya Dennis is one of the best in the conference at linebacker and cornerback.

When he plays loose and relies only on instincts, Brothers is one of the fastest players to the football, excelling in coverage as the kind of versatile piece that Odom seems to covet. He swarmed to the team lead in tackles late last season after finally seeming comfortable on an SEC field.

Next to him is Scherer, deserving of the “quarterback of the defense” moniker often bestowed upon inside linebackers. By now he’s as reliable as they come reading things pre-snap and ensuring everyone lines up correctly.

Then there’s Penton, the team’s best cover corner, who at least thus far has seemed to distance himself from the off-field issues that cost him a game in ’14. And Dennis, a physical, aggressive corner likely to get drafted after the ’15 season, has learned when to pick his spots to take chances and also has grown more comfortable seemingly every month since transferring to Mizzou last year.

The skill set of all four players compliments each other well, but the biggest attributes are speed and athleticism. Coach Gary Pinkel has built an SEC-caliber defense with those two building-block qualities.

Sure, many of the players arrived in Columbia, Mo., less refined than those prep standouts who make their way to Tuscaloosa, Ala., or Baton Rouge, La. But the SEC East Tigers have proven adept at hand-picking the correct raw skill sets. (Plus, there’s a good chance many of the region’s less-heralded recruits are a tad undervalued by recruiting services.)

When you add in a steady senior safety (Ian Simon), defensive tackles that are versatile (Rickey Hatley) and immovable (Josh Augusta), speedy, disruptive linebackers (Donavin Newsom and Clarence Green) as well as a promising five-star talent (Terry Beckner Jr.), it’s easy to understand why Mizzou has the makings of a classic SEC defense.

It should be fascinating to see whether Odom mixes some 3-4 alignments into the defense, and knowing he’s got a solid secondary (with commendable depth at nickel as well), decides to get more aggressive with blitzes.

In the best conference, or at the highest level of any sport, the most impressive teams are the ones who can beat you in a variety of ways. At the championship level, at least in theory, teams will be able to take away or limit your best attribute. That forces you to win with your left hand, so to speak.

Well, this Mizzou defense seems pretty ambidextrous.

Add in extra blockers to protect the passer and the speedy, deep back seven will cover your targets, at least one or two of them bracketed, until one of the linemen eventually wins a 1-on-1 matchup. Decide to pound the football and the Tigers can go big and get physical, as the team did against Arkansas late in the ’14 season. Try too hard to spread out across the field and test the corners, and the line will swarm your quarterback.

Pair the ’13 offense with this year’s defense and you probably have a team that’s good enough to compete for a College Football Playoff spot.

That’s very, very unlikely. But the ’15 offense should at least be able to run the ball effectively. If the defense performs like I suspect it will, with the team’s easy schedule (relative to SEC standards), the formula is there to at least compete for yet another SEC East title all season.

Regardless of the outcome, the team’s linebackers and defensive backs should get some long-overdue credit this fall.