There are different directions we can go, and I'll probably change my mind several times, but below is my plan as of today:

Hire Ben Johnson as the head coach.

Retain Kirk and Engram.  My general philosophy is that if you aren't in salary cap trouble, you should keep your quality players.

Cut Darby, Reynolds, Duvernay and Fortner.  This adds another $10.8 million to our existing $36 million under the salary cap.

Trade Savage for absolutely anything.  I would cut him, but there's $6.25 million in guaranteed salary.  Let his new team pay it.  

For free agency, my general approach is to fill as many of our desperate needs as possible which then allows us to go BAP in the draft.  Scherff and Cisco are not under contract and I'm also getting rid of Savage because he sucks so bad.  As such, we need two safeties and a right guard in free agency.  These are non-premium positions, so they aren't as hard to get as some positions.  I'd also try to sign center Drew Dalman.  He's a decent center and excellent in run blocking.  I think we have good running backs, but our interior offensive line creates no holes for them.  They are running into brick walls.    

In the draft, I take Will Johnson at #5 overall.  After that, we can largely go BAP.  I would want an edge somewhere on Day 2.  If it doesn't make sense in the second round, we also have two third round picks.  We can also trade up or down somewhere if that's what it takes.  Wide receiver would also be one of my preferred positions on Day 2 assuming the value is there.

The bottom line for our offense is that we would upgrade center and right guard which will make a huge difference in our running game which will also take a lot of the pressure off our passing game.  I'm also hoping for better health and better coaching to improve the offense in 2025.  For defense, we would have rebuilt our secondary which was atrocious.  We would (hopefully) have added a shutdown corner plus two upgraded safeties.  We would also add a young edge to give us depth and rotate with Walker and JHA.  Our defensive interior would also be improved with Armstead moving back to the middle and hopefully Maason Smith continuing to develop in 2025.  Of course, better defensive coaching would also be a big plus.  I'm hopeful that this plan would change many of those 10 games that we lost by a single score in 2024 into wins in 2025.

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