As dominant as SEC West defenses are, you better have some kind of offense if you hope to compete.

Last season, the West had seven of the SEC’s top eight scoring offenses, led by Ole Miss at 40.8 points per game.

This season could see a bit of a reversal as the East looks improved and the West lost a ton of talented skill players, but the West still has weapons.

Here’s a look at what to expect in 2016.

1. Ole Miss

Strength: Passing game

Weakness: Running game

Best player: QB Chad Kelly

Ole Miss is among those who lost some talent, but the Rebels return a bunch of it, too.

Everything on offense starts with Kelly, who became the third SEC QB in history to throw for 4,000 yards last season and will try to become the first to do so twice in a career.

The receivers aren’t as well known, perhaps, as Texas A&M’s bunch, but they’re almost as dangerous. You know about Quincy Adeboyejo and Damore’ea Stringfellow, but there’s depth beyond them. Van Jefferson could be the next breakout star.

Kelly helped the running game last year. Senior quarterbacks with NFL aspirations typically don’t run as much as they did as juniors, so he likely pick his spots in 2016.

The Rebels will too. They threw it 489 times last year — second only to Mississippi State — and that figure could rise to 500 this season.

2. Texas A&M

Strength: Wide receivers

Weakness: Proven running game

Best player: WR Christian Kirk

Kirk gets all of the love and a lot of the double teams, but the fact is Trevor Knight has four or five options every time he receives the shotgun snap.

And there isn’t a bad one in the bunch.

Ricky Seals-Jones, with his size, could be a better NFL player than he’s shown in college. A&M is hoping Speedy Noil becomes the player everyone expected; he certainly has the physical gifts. And Josh Reynolds can turn bubble screens into six points as well as anybody in the country.

A&M averaged just 27.8 points per game last season — embarrassingly low given all of the talent they possessed.

They should push Ole Miss — and perhaps pass them — in a race to average 40 this season.

3. LSU

Strength: Running game

Weakness: Quarterback

Best player: RB Leonard Fournette

Leonard Fournette would have topped 2,000 yards rushing last season had the season opener not been canceled. He’s obviously a threat to do that this year, especially if the Tigers play 13 or more games.

But he isn’t the key to playing 13 or more games. Brandon Harris is. LSU’s passing game didn’t equal the sum of its parts last season. Travin Dural and Malachi Dupre have NFL talent. Put them in Ole Miss’ offense with Chad Kelly and both are 1,200-yard receivers, easily.

The challenge — rephrase, it’s moved beyond challenge to directive — is for Les Miles and Cam Cameron to figure out how to get the outside playmakers more involved and not lean so much on Fournette.

LSU has 40 points per game talent. Next year’s NFL Draft will prove that.

4. Alabama

Strength: Lane Kiffin

Weakness: Quarterback

Best player: O.J. Howard

Lane Kiffin and Nick Saban will figure this out. Of all of the teams with quarterback concerns, from coast to coast, history has reminded us that Alabama is the one we should worry the least about.

The masterminds will find a way — even if they can’t find a perfect solution at quarterback.

Alabama was in the same situation last offseason. It then averaged 35.1 points per game, and improved as the games became more important. They hung 45 on a Clemson team that only allowed two others to reach 35.

We know the unproven running backs will be fine because they’ve never been anything except that for the past eight years. We know Calvin Ridley is special.

O.J. Howard proved in the championship game he is an impossible matchup. Too much size for the secondary. Too much speed for linebackers. He returned to school and is playing for first-round money in 2016.

Alabama will average at least 35 points again in 2016.

5. Arkansas

Strength: Gameplan

Weakness: Unproven quarterback

Best player: WR Drew Morgan

We know what Arkansas lost. A lot. A 3,000-yard passer. Two running backs with 1,000-yard seasons on their resume. Several receivers. Three starters on the offensive line.

What they didn’t lose was their mind-set. The Razorbacks are going to plug in new pieces and continue to pound. Last season, their offense scored more because it incorporated more big plays.

Bret Bielema took over in 2013, and those Razorbacks averaged 20.7 points. In 2014, that figure jumped to 31.9. Last year it surged to 35.9, helped, no doubt, by easy points in overtime games.

Bielema has praised new starting quarterback Austin Allen, who has been in the system, just not the games.

Arkansas’ line might be their greatest concern, except that’s an area the Hogs recruit so well in. They’ve brought in four four-star prospects in the past three classes. It helps when those guys become cover boys on the media guide.

6. Auburn

Strength: Running game

Weakness: Quarterback

Best player: Jovon Robinson

Auburn occupied the No. 1 spot in this ranking last year — different writer, mind you — as everyone bought stock in Jeremy Johnson.

This year, his own coach has all but given up. Auburn’s quarterback competition will continue until Gus Malzahn simply picks somebody. There’s been no clear separation, no clear surprises, no real development. What they could do in 2015 is what they can do in 2016. Johnson is the closest thing Auburn has to a complete quarterback. Sean White is the surest passer but must be protected like the Hope Diamond. And newcomer John Franklin III has dazzling playground speed but looked overmatched in the passing game.

Teaming Franklin with Robinson in the read option game sounds great until Franklin gets hit. Can he hold up at 180 pounds?

Auburn averaged 27.5 points per game last season — last in the SEC West. Can the Tigers even get back to that in 2016?

7. Mississippi State

Strength: Dan Mullen

Weakness: Quarterback

Best player: WR Fred Ross

Dak Prescott was a lightly-regarded three-star prospect when he signed with the Bulldogs in 2011. Dan Mullen helped him develop into an NFL Draft pick.

That’s important to understand.

Mullen’s bullpen isn’t as talented or deep as Nick Saban’s in Tuscaloosa, but Mullen has worked with his quarterback candidates for at least two years.

If you’re a Bulldogs fan, lean on his track record as an offensive mastermind and hope those guys were paying attention. If they falter, it won’t be because the message wasn’t good enough.

Yet, as much trust as we have in Mullen’s schemes, players score. And it’s hard to envision the Bulldogs scoring more than 25 points per game in 2016. Mullen’s teams twice have been held to that, but they’ve yet to fall below that.

Chris Wright is Executive Editor at SaturdayDownSouth.com. Email him at cwright@saturdaydownsouth.com.