It's premature to talk rebuild, but the obvious issue is the O line and it seems to be only be getting worse. That was OK when they had a running back that could make yards with almost zero blocking and a QB not making a fraction of what RW is now. Come to think of it, what RS, Kam C, ET, MB, CA, KJW and DB are making now. It would be really interesting to go back in the time machine and see if the same people bitching and whining about the o ine are the same that bleated "pay the man!!!!, He the bestest!!" a couple of years ago.
If the o line doesn't make a drastic improvement soon, RW will be on the shelf, hopefully not with a career ending injury. Once that happens the Hawks will be the an 8 and 8 team at best. If that happens, kiss the stellar defense good bye, players will be released, they have to in order to protect the largest earner on the team. I got ripped by people on this forum for daring to try and articulate the gigantic pay increase RW was going to get and repercussions for said increase in this same forum. Posters went after me for questioning the sheople mentality of pay him what ever he wants. Maybe I didn't articulate my thoughts fully, but this type of thing is was picturing would happen. PC and JS committed to the D stud players first so where else are salary savings going to happen? Cut the kicker? Punter? Long snapper? Look at the bitch fest that happened for letting the LS go to save money.
I am with all Hawks fans, RW is the right guy at QB and is worth the money, but just like monopoly, there is only so much money and hard decisions have to be made. You don't get it all except on rare occasions. If this season ends with out a playoff game I would expect to see several core players let go.
KJW, MB, Kam and possibly Earl are real very real possibilities. You cant pay a guy 20+ million a year to get beat up on every down. Money is going to be focused on the O line at a detriment to the D.