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How many positions do we need good players? Oh, and good luck in matching good players for the positions we need. It's a crapshoot. Donald however is not a crapshoot. So keep talking about cap savings all you want, but you would still need to spend that money to help the team. And you're spending that money on a crapshoot. I'll take the sure thing anytime, and Donald is the sure thing.
As I mentioned above, with Havenstein signed and not counting AD, there are 5 starter spots who are FAs. There are also backups that need to be replaced (including backup QB, and any backups desirable as starters to replace FAs like Noteboom). At least 1 OLB it looks like. Maybe both, although a platoon might work out for one spot. TEs have not yet produced under McVay, even though in Washington it was one of the more important positions on the offense.
In terms of Donald not being a crapshoot - ask the Texans whether their 3-time DPOY player who had never been injured before signing his big contract is a crapshoot or not. EVERYBODY in the NFL is a crapshoot, just some bigger than others. Putting 1/7 of the salary cap space into one non-QB makes it more likely that if an injury occurs the team is crippled.
There is more than one way to build a team - while wanting stars, some of us would also like to have very deep teams so injuries don't automatically derail the success and so teams don't have weak spots to target. While so far the front office looks like they have plans to fill holes, it's also the case that not all of it has been successful yet (or TEs would be a much larger part of the offense, backup QB wouldn't seem to be a major issue, and OLBs wouldn't be needing an upgrade), and it will get MUCH harder with Donald at a record contract, and starting in 2020 Goff getting even more money.
