Intermittent oil pressure/lack of oil pressure

Doing that definitely isn't a one day job, is it. I was just looking at pan removal in my service manual, and it's a lot more involved than I ever thought it would be. So what if I were to take off the filter, cut it open, see a bunch of crap in it, then put a new filter on. Do you think that'd be sufficient? Or would you recommend taking the pan off no mater what