Still not sure what you're getting at. Surely you aren't saying you move on from some of the best players on your team, the Daks and Coopers and Gallups and Martins, because the team hasn't gone farther in the playoffs?
Well, going back to what Geng and I were debating earlier, I'm just saying I don't know that "making the playoffs," or "getting to the divisional round," is good enough.
And if this team was to lose in that round again this year, that would be the third time the Dak/Elliott/Smith/Martin/Collins/D-Law/Gregory/Anthony Brown core lost in that round, and the second time for another group of players like Cooper, Gallup, Schultz, Jarwin, etc. It's a big portion of our team, especially on offense. I would guess it's way higher a percentage of return on offense than compared to standard around the league.
My argument here is that for these guys in key roles, it's not "progress," for them. This is who they have been - many of them since 2016, others since 2018, but basically this cast has not been able to elevate their peers to get past that playoff peak, they haven't even been able to reach the divisional round in back to back years.
I'm not saying that we should move on from any specific player, but I am saying that if this team, with this improved coaching staff, was to lose in the divisional round or earlier, some painful decisions probably SHOULD be made rather than just keeping who we can keep in free agency and drafting again with our picks and then running everything else back. Like, we should be looking to shake things up a tad, would be my recommendation. Maybe not full scale rebuild but I'd certainly be seeing which of my veterans could fetch picks in return.
I mean, what if someone gave you a first and third for Zach Martin? I would hate losing him, but maybe that cap space lets you re-sign Gallup who you'd otherwise have to let walk, and then you have two more prime draft picks. I'm just spitballing, not saying that's what we SHOULD do. Maybe having this much money tied up in the OL has hurt us. Maybe we need to free up money from D-Law to re-sign Gregory. I dunno.