First, let me say that I'm well aware of all the players we are gonna lose on defense.  And yes, traditional logic says we need to devote a lot of offseason resources filling defensive holes and trying to bolster the D overall.  I'm certainly not opposed to that.  

That said, I'm thinking about a different approach and wondering if ultimately might be the better approach for the short and long term.

Keep building the offense.  Create a monster offense that has sustainable, year after year success.  Draft both for now and for the future so when good players either age out, retire, or we simply can't pay them, we have another high caliber player ready to take their spot.

It's no secret that the NFL rules these days all favor offense.  More points scored = more viewers = more money.  Not to mention the fantasy football world where high scoring games are a bonanza.

I'm not saying just neglect the defense, what I want to say is this: With good coaching, we can roll out a defense with maybe just a couple "blue chip" and the rest "average" players and still have a D that is around middle of the pack.  I.e, not great, but doesn't suck.  But to compensate for that is to have a juggernaut offense.

Most teams try to balance how they stack the roster.  So if you say the average team attempts to split resources 50/50 between O and D, I'm saying make it more like 75/25 favoring the offense.

Just imagine if this offseason we dedicated 75% of available resources to an already good offense.  What if we added a legit slot receiver (who is a real threat), drafted an OT at #10 that will be ready in the event of a Lane Johnson injury or retirement in 2 years (OL is crucial to offensive success).  Add a dynamic RB at #30.

Just a quick hypothetical...

In FA, there's a rumor/report circulating that Keenan Allen could be a cap casualty.  What if we were able to add him to the slot in our offense?  Would it take up a good percentage of financial resources?  Sure...but at the same time, a player like Allen at this point in his career might be more swayed by a chance at a championship vs. getting the most money.  Maybe Michael Thomas could be enticed as well (assuming his medical checks out).  Allen or Thomas in the slot, in this offense, would be insane.

The FA focus (after Hurts' extension) would be on adding a good WR3/slot and re-signing CJGJ.  If there's any more cap room after that, find some mid-level defensive players.

Then, draft OT Peter Skoronski at #10 and either RB Robinson or Gibbs at 30.  Use our 2nd and 3rd rounders on the D.

Again, this is just a hypothetical exercise with a different approach to team building.  Build a juggernaut Offense with foresight for the future to keep it going every year and "maintain" an "average" defense.  

We need a starting RG and that will be available in the 3rd round maybe early 4th. We need a new slot receiver and those are available deep into the draft.  And a swing OT somewhere late to develop.  RB could could be taken anywhere and maybe a FA signing.  

But the first 3 picks will be defensive or two defensive and either a RB or RG

The offense is pretty set, they've already drafted for future at some positions. More free agents probably leaving on defense. But they will need to replace Sanders & draft an O lineman, potential Lane Johnson replacement. 

They will need to balance out  drafting for future & immediate needs. You also have to see what the draft board looks like, how the draft falls, etc. For example, they drafted Davis, Jurgens & Dean last year to be future starters. 

RB is easily biggest whole and always need depth, but defense will be in shambles if they don’t address it. I totally get your point though and think it has validity, I just think you have to spread out the picks. 

I think there are 3 ways to improve on offense:

1. Hurts more consistently throws an accurate deep ball.  (Reasonable expectation).

2. Hurts gets a more consistently open deep target, ie either upgrade Watkins or Watkins has a better year.  (Hard to find a good deep threat...this would would be round 2-3 draft pick, earlier would be unwise, later and you aren't getting an upgrade).

3. RB with great quickness who can contribute on screens and be more of a factor in the passing game. (Rounds 2-5 draft).

 

Those are really the only things to add.

1 hour ago, eagle45 said:

I think there are 3 ways to improve on offense:

1. Hurts more consistently throws an accurate deep ball.  (Reasonable expectation).

2. Hurts gets a more consistently open deep target, ie either upgrade Watkins or Watkins has a better year.  (Hard to find a good deep threat...this would would be round 2-3 draft pick, earlier would be unwise, later and you aren't getting an upgrade).

3. RB with great quickness who can contribute on screens and be more of a factor in the passing game. (Rounds 2-5 draft).

 

Those are really the only things to add.

Agree with this. Only thing I’d add is assuming Seumalo leaves, there is probably (ideally) a G/T pick in there. Plays RG next year but can swing out when Lane retires. 

1 hour ago, kiwieagle said:

Agree with this. Only thing I’d add is assuming Seumalo leaves, there is probably (ideally) a G/T pick in there. Plays RG next year but can swing out when Lane retires. 

If Kelce comes back Jurgens can potentially play RG?. I'm not quite sure of the narrative that he's too undersized when he's listed as about the same weight as Seumalo.

Please no more of these small shifty RBs. We need a big tough guy who can break tackles. Havent had one like that since Blount.

23 minutes ago, opa-opa said:

Please no more of these small shifty RBs. We need a big tough guy who can break tackles. Havent had one like that since Blount.

absolutely but Howie loves small guys

4 hours ago, weko said:

absolutely but Howie loves small guys

Yeah and its just dumb. Someone who can reliably get 4 to 8 yard chunks is a lot more valuable than someone who can bust a 50 yd run maybe twice a season.

One thing is clear - we’re going to need at least one more pick in the first 5 round plus maybe a 6th round pick to get a punter. We’ll need those picks to get a starting DL or two and a starting CB plus a starting RB and potentially an OL who can start within a year or two. That’s 5-6 picks and we have 4 in the first three rounds, then nothing until the 7th. 
Obviously, Howie will look to trade back for more picks, but we may trade a pick or two from 2024 for a mid round pick this year as we may have 10-12 picks in 2024 picks with all the comp picks. 

Yes offense needs to be elite.. starting with getting a dual threat speed RB, and a power back.

We absolutely have to limit Hurts ‘put the team on his back’ runs in the regular season to prolong his career and de-risk injuries 

Watching the all 22 of Eagles game our RB gets open a good amount of times but hurts doesn’t look for him (I don’t think he trusted sanders in the passing game) getting a RB that’s a threat in that area is a game breaker to take this offense to another level 

as for Hurts, he needs to develop a passing game inside the RZ. We were able to bully our way down there all year. Would like to see him throw more TDs keeping defenses guessing. 
 

Slot receiver needs an upgrade or for Quez to step up next year. I like his speed but he had a disappointing year 

We had a pretty expensive, very talented defense in 2022 and in the biggest, most important game of the year, they were no different than a mediocre defense. With our cap situation and pending extensions, it doesn't make sense to spend much cap on defense. We should continue to fill holes (on defense) with draft picks and low profile UFAs. 

 

This may not be popular to most, but I would like to see Kelce return for another season and keep Seumalo as well. Get the contract with Hurts done and go from there. If we keep the line intact, this offense should continue to get better, which should keep our defense off the field. I'm not opposed to bringing Sanders back, but am confident in Gainwell if we want to save money. Keep Scott around --- he's quality depth and has become a pretty good KR. 

10 minutes ago, brkmsn said:

We had a pretty expensive, very talented defense in 2022 and in the biggest, most important game of the year, they were no different than a mediocre defense. With our cap situation and pending extensions, it doesn't make sense to spend much cap on defense. We should continue to fill holes (on defense) with draft picks and low profile UFAs. 

 

This may not be popular to most, but I would like to see Kelce return for another season and keep Seumalo as well. Get the contract with Hurts done and go from there. If we keep the line intact, this offense should continue to get better, which should keep our defense off the field. I'm not opposed to bringing Sanders back, but am confident in Gainwell if we want to save money. Keep Scott around --- he's quality depth and has become a pretty good KR. 

Yea, defense helped us win games, but the Chiefs offense won the championship and our offense kept us in the championship.

34 minutes ago, brkmsn said:

We had a pretty expensive, very talented defense in 2022 and in the biggest, most important game of the year, they were no different than a mediocre defense. With our cap situation and pending extensions, it doesn't make sense to spend much cap on defense. We should continue to fill holes (on defense) with draft picks and low profile UFAs. 

 

This may not be popular to most, but I would like to see Kelce return for another season and keep Seumalo as well. Get the contract with Hurts done and go from there. If we keep the line intact, this offense should continue to get better, which should keep our defense off the field. I'm not opposed to bringing Sanders back, but am confident in Gainwell if we want to save money. Keep Scott around --- he's quality depth and has become a pretty good KR. 

Yep, that's pretty much why I started thinking this way...our "super talented defense" can still be lit up like a Christmas tree against good QBs.  So why spend our most valuable resources on trying to retain or improve that side of the ball when the outcome may not make that much of a difference, ultimately.  Use the bulk of our most valuable resources to further bolster the offense and put more succession plans in place ahead of time (i.e., having Jurgens ready to take over for Kelce, etc).  

Ideally, I'd like the setup to be something like having a "good" player at each level of the D...Line, LB and Secondary...then fill the rest in with average-level, non-bank-breaking players (and a few 2nd - 5th round picks).  Then have the offense stocked with as many good players as you can feasibly get.  Spend our highest draft picks on offense.  Prioritize finding impact offensive players in free agency, etc.  If you're debating between 2 premium free agents...one on offense and one on defense...choose the offensive player.  Things like that.

And yeah, I'd like to see Kelce come back as well.  I think he will.  Seumalo...he's a solid player but I'm fine if he leaves.  Assuming Kelce returns, I'd be comfortable putting Jurgens or Driscoll at RG.  Or hell, in my example above, if we drafted OT Peter Skoronski as the heir apparent for Lane Johnson, he could fill in at RG before eventually moving to RT.

Fill in the holes. Offense is already potent. D has a lot of open spots now.

Step one. Re-sign CJGJ.

The offense needs very little attention. Hopefully the resign CGJ and no doubt if they want to Howie will make it happen. Think its extremely likely they trade back a few spots from #10 and also pick up more draft capital in the mid rounds. The defense is where they need to get better and younger. Would really like to see our early picks in this draft be significant contributors rather than depth pieces sitting on the bench.

I hear and see what you are saying, OP. 
 

For the draft though, we just have to see where the board falls. Hard to speculate now on that. 
 

FA is much easier. 

No. I'm only for using a high pick on the offensive side if it's for OL.  Other than that, RB/WR should be a pick in the 3rd round or below.  They need to bolster the defensive side with all the players we're losing.

 

The Defense needs to be bolstered more than the offense. 

Dan Fouts and Air Coryell
Dan Marino

These are two HOF QB's, that never won the SB. Their offenses were legendary, yet they didn't win, because their defenses weren't good enough. Let's not make the same mistake.

Defense wins championships. That saying is true. 

1 hour ago, jsdarkstar said:

The Defense needs to be bolstered more than the offense

I'd agree on the basis that Hurts now needs to go and back up an exceptional year and do it again. And eventually he's going to have to do it with less around him. 

1 hour ago, UK_EaglesFan89 said:

I'd agree on the basis that Hurts now needs to go and back up an exceptional year and do it again. And eventually he's going to have to do it with less around him. 

Yep. It happened to A. Rodgers. 

If I know Howie at all he’ll do what he can to get Bijan on this roster. You are potentially getting an AP level talent on a controller contract for 5 years. 

16 hours ago, jsdarkstar said:

The Defense needs to be bolstered more than the offense. 

Dan Fouts and Air Coryell
Dan Marino

These are two HOF QB's, that never won the SB. Their offenses were legendary, yet they didn't win, because their defenses weren't good enough. Let's not make the same mistake.

Defense wins championships. That saying is true. 

I'd argue that the defenses of that era weren't hamstrung by the rules of today that favor offenses.  I'm not saying neglect the defense, I'm saying use more of our most valuable resources to keep the offense elite while maintaining a "competitive defense" that can at least be middle of the pack.  Using the draft as an example: use our two first rounders on offense and our 2nd and 3rd rounders on defense.  That's what I mean be resource allocation and just tilting it to favor offense.  We have an opportunity right now to add to our offense and make it a juggernaut.