If I’m Chris Ballard, I’ve got to decide if this year’s squad…

[Kray007]

Has real Super Bowl potential or is it a team that will get to the playoffs and go one and done?

How you see the team has real implications for how you spend the rest of the offseason, who or if you add before now and the first kickoff of the season.

That question didn’t much factor into the pursuit of Trey Hendrickson. Hendrickson wasn’t a one year stopgap, a way to jury rig the roster and spackle over a hole. He was young enough, with enough left in the tank, to offer production for another few years. You could add him to the roster in preparation for a real run in 2027.

What’s left on the market, now, are a bunch of players best described as once were’s. You might get a decent short term return if you sign a Clowney, but he’s 33 years old. Calais Campbell is 39, Von Miller 37.

If you truly believe, you sign one of those guys, assuming that he’s the piece that shoves you over the finish line. If your expectations are more modest, you hold the hand you’re dealt. You hope to scheme your way to a pass rush, explore whether Tuimoloau, Cumbs, or Curry have the right stuff. If one of them does, you’re playing with found money. If they don’t, you go into next year’s free agent class and pay whatever price is needed to snag your guy.

To a certain extent, the same logic applies to Wide Receiver. Do you ante up big bucks for Jauan Jennings to be a number two? Do you bide your time and hope that an upper echelon option emerges before the season, an AJ Brown or a DK Metcalf? Do you explore the upside of guys already on the roster? How good is Aston Dulin, can Laquon Treadwell live up to his 1st round potential, how much does Westbrook-Ikhini bring to the table, does the Burks kid have what it takes to morph into TY Hilton 2.0?

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