This season feels like 2016 to me. This year’s offense is the 2016 defense and this defense is like that offense, though.

So… nothing like 2016 then?

Well, just that they are more talented than their record suggests, and that one side of the ball is quite a bit closer to where it need to be than the other.

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I like this team.  I like them a lot.

There are less holes here than on the Steelers roster imo.  They are still 4 starters away from making the playoffs though.    DT, CB, Leading Wide Receiver and another CB.

I think the Jags OLine is a net positive, as are it's safeties, middle linebackers, QB and running back.  IMO every other position is open for an upgrade though. (including the defensive coordinator)

All of this changes though as soon as we enter next year's off season. Notable free agents entering the market from our current roster next year:

Offense:
Marvin Jones - WR
James Robinson - RB
Jamychal Hasty - RB
Evan Engram - TE
Dan Arnold - TE
Chris Manhertz - TE
Jawaan Taylor - RT
Cole Van Lanen - G
CJ Beathard - QB

Defense:
Dawuane Smoot - DE
Arden Key - DE
Tre Herndon - CB

They also have to make some decisions with Griffin at CB and Jenkins at Safety in the secondary potentially. As well as what the plans are in the long term with Josh Allen. They're either extending him or shipping him off. 

Not sure how the staff will look next year. Doug may very well look for a more seasoned veteran with more experience calling a defense at the NFL level if Caldwell cannot figure out what to do with this current roster. 

Entering next year though they have a lot of positions to backfill. This is all after they just spent a record amount of money in this year's free agency market. 2 - 5 is not pretty. Defensively they've really [BLEEP] the bed as of late as well and that's predominately where the money was spent. 

I don't envy Doug Pederson and Trent Baalke at the moment. A lot of this will fall back on Doug and Trevor developing consistency on offense and having to play damn near perfect at this point the rest of the way this year. Highly unlikely but going into next year it's going to be on them to keep the team afloat. Play calling has to get better. Lawrence has to improve his accuracy downfield.

This is a big point and may need a separate thread and definitely doesn't fall under 'positive' but the cap is an issue we need to look at. Next seasons cap hit is $232m which already has us over the projected cap and that's for 39 players. Now there are some easy savings. Here are our biggest spends for next year....gulp..

Cam- $22.5m
Kirk- $21.5m
Scherf- $20m
Oloukon- $19m
Shaq Griffin-$17.5m
Fatukasi- $12.8m
Darious Williams-$12m

Then you have Rayshawn, Lawrence, Allen, RRH and Zay Jones all earning just over or under $10m.

Now releasing Shaq would cost $4m and save $13.5m and releasing RRH would cost $2.3 saving $7.8m so there are ways to get some cap space but we don't have an awful lot of room to manoeuvre. Going to have to be a couple of smart FA additions and draft picks this offseason.

Big offseason for Baalke.

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