IMO, the Cards brass needs to think long and hard before shipping off players who don't fit this staff, whoever they are. Though Deone is a bit different situation given he's scheduled to be a UFA. One maybe even might add Fitz if this is truly his last year (though after being traded to a good spot, he might find he wants to play another year or three). This situation/staff might have screwed us out of making optimal choices with them.
Things are going very badly with the new staff and it's schemes. We have six games of evidence and another chance to build on it or refute it every game forward. Baffling decision after baffling decision. Under-utilization of players and fitting square pegs in round holes.
We don't want to trade off PP, only to then fire our coach after this year OR next and then be in the market for a man cover unicorn. Or another RB in DJ only to fire McCoy a few games later.
If they ultimately want to give Wilks and the defensive side another year, they need to do it with our best players being augmented by another year of the draft and free agency to get players who fit the scheme.
You don't get rid of your best players to further try new off/def schemes that so far are failing massively. Also IF they are going to give the coaches time to implement this scheme amidst its ongoing abject failure, they need to give their best players an even better chance to adapt to it. Doubling down on stupid only makes things worse. We'd be digging out of a much bigger hole. Your best players need to have the most leeway of all within the organization.
It's not like these schemes are taking hold and doing well except for our star players who aren't cutting it after a couple of years.
This might be why we need to hasten the process of dumping this staff at the end of this year. We cannot be tempted to trade our best players because they don't fit broken systems. It's very possible NO PLAYERS fit some aspects of these systems, because some of the systems don't work.
Getting rid of any of our good players is just going backward, creating more holes to fill, all for a staff that might be forced out sooner or later. We need to send the staff packing before we send our best players packing.
I don't think Keim/MB would actually sign off on getting rid of these guys, especially not without a record breaking Herschel Walker type haul, which just isn't going to happen. DJ was just signed, thus if we had any inclination to trade him, we would have done it before not after. PP is still young enough to be top quality for another ~5 years.
Trading away our best players would be such an old Cardinals move. It would just reinforce that we don't know what the hell we are doing. I don't think MB or anyone wants that. In life sometimes you take a step in the wrong direction. It doesn't mean you overall stop taking steps. We just need to identify and correct ourselves before taking another step.
God help us if they side with this staff over our best players, because that's when its time as a fan to panic about the future of the Cards. But that's a big leap from here, and this staff isn't making it too hard to notice what corrections are necessary, at least some of them.
