Plenty of discussion this offseason about how Howie will be shifting lots of cap dollars to the defense in the months and years to come. He already started this offseason with JD and he extended Greenard right away, and you can even include Baun if you want to back one more year. Over the next year or so, Q, Coop, and Carter will almost certainly be getting paid. And at least one or two others. We'll need to have less cap dollars allocated to the offense as a result, most likely by drafting replacements for some of the higher-priced guys as they move on. (Free agency, retirement, cut, trade - the reasons don't matter for the purposes of this post.)
Here's a list of the starters at SB 59: Hurts, Barkley, Brown, Smitty, Dotson, Goedert, Mailata, Dickerson, Jurgens, Steen, and Lane.
We know how many will still be here in 2026: 9. (I took the liberty of crossing out the names of the other two.) Today's assignment, if you choose to accept it, is to answer these two questions:
You can give your reasons why, or not - that's up to you. You can name the players or just give a number - also up to you. You can assume the Mannion offense will be great or that it won't. Makes no difference - your choice. There's still going to be a transition of personnel on offense and I'm curious how fast all of you think it is going to happen, which will dictate how Howie makes decisions over the next 1-2 years, especially when it comes to using his draft picks and re-signing some players (or not).
My answers are 6 in 2027 and 4 in 2028 - but that assumes that Cam's back doesn't become a more chronic issue. If it does, I'd lower both numbers by one. FYI - the last four in 2028 are Hurts, Smitty, Mailata, and Jurgens, in my opinion.