I respectfully disagree on some level, Darryl. While they made it to 2/3 past SBs (or 3/4, really) the missed, injured, and stolen picks had not yet caught up to them. I think we saw that lack of depth at all three levels of the defense at times last season, particularly in the bookend losses of the season where the defense gave up 40+. Had we not wasted top picks such as Cyrus Jones, Easley, stolen 1st/4th, Jordan Richards as a 2nd, Grissom, etc things would be a lot different. Add in the unfortunate injuries to high round guys like Rivers, Valentine, Mitchell, and Garcia, and you can easily see how this has set the future of the team back a bit.
Even the hits such as Mason, Thuney, and Flowers (and Cooks, since he cost us a 1st + 3rd) will be difficult to keep due to the high double digit millions per year that will come with a second pact. We can reasonably hope to retain 1-2 of them.
I think the draft is very important due to the salary cap structure and the need for young, cheap players. Not only do you need that youth and speed at some positions, but you also need those cheaper players to offset your more expensive stars and round out your 90-to-53 man roster. This upcoming draft is going to be key in how the future of the team looks, as will the health of some of the other recent higher picks, but I do believe right or wrong, that the draft misses have caught up to us a bit.
