You beat me to it. PC/JS made a lot of midseason trades with draft capital. It took a toll, salary-cap-wise. Duane Brown was an OK trade, but then we had a DT or two whose names escapes me, OK, Sheldon Richardson, I think, that was a one-season rental, Clowney who I don't think we gave up much for. Taken one at a time, the trades were "OK", but the pattern was to prop up Pete in-season, and the net effect was to screw over the salary cap and bring in less young talent on rookie contracts. The Jamal Adams trade was just one more BAD example, though it was off-season trade, of Pete mortgaging the future, undervaluing draft picks, and taking an overly expensive risk on a player that underperformed.
Yes, LWilliams was a midseason prop-up-Pete Hail Mary, but the rest of the defense around him was so full of holes that it didn't matter anyway. In the end, *that* trade will probably wind up being a positive one. Pete never figured out how to stop the McVay Rams and also got torched by the Shanahan 49ers the last several years. Ironic that a "defense first" coach had a crap defense but a pretty good offense. Pete's formula worked a decade ago, and Hawks had a great defense, but not the last few seasons.
It's so refreshing to see MMacdonald emphasize the trenches in the draft and get players who will probably be NFL All-Pros during their rookie contracts.