Teams have to go through rebuilds. You site models of teams that did. Of teams that acquired future draft picks instead of trading then away. The teams you mention didnt max out their future salary caps to win now after their franchise qb retired. From my perspective your and Loomis’s expectations are unrealistic and mine are realistic. I accept that teams need to go through a rebuilding phase from time to time and that when your franchise qb retires with no capable heir, you lead the league in being over the salary cap ahead of each season, etc that is a sign that its probably time to rebuild and accept some losing while younger less proven players put it all on the line and pull off some upset wins too. I think it is an unrealistic expectation to expect that we can put off rebuilding and win it all under these circumstances and do it with a coach whose career winning percentage is under .250. I think Loomis’ denial in this regard of a neccessary rebuild is delaying our emergence and ability to truly contend in the future. Yeah we might theoretically win the division if every team in our conference is garbage but we aint going far in the playoffs. And next year the hated Falcons have about $120 million more cap space than us, as they cut the bad contracts and took the big cap hits Loomis couldn’t stomach. And you know how many games back they are in the division? Zero. The Falcons are cleaning up their cap and keeping their picks and winning more games than us. The Panthers are doing it too and have the same record as us and the tiebreaker. So
I think its very realistic to say we can rebuild with dignity and honor, and unrealistic to trade future picks and max the salary cap in ways that demand contending for a ring now at the expense of the future, like we expect we have to contend every year.