This is sorely revisionist. This team had a top offense and good defensive personnel being held back by bad coaching. A lot of the same guys that thrived under Schwartz were struggling under Rex. We KNOW the talent was there.
Do you remember how we would have had Watkins for pretty cheap if we'd just picked up his 5th-year option? Because I do.
Our cap space was limited, but fine. Other teams manage with far worse situations than ours without gutting all of the young talent on their roster. Glenn's contract is fine, too-- left tackles are expensive to keep. Just the nature of the business. When he's been in good schemes, he's been a monster in the run game and an above-average pass-blocker. We've been dramatically more successful running to the left than anywhere else since we've drafted him. Dareus was absolutely overpaid, but still an effective player with elite potential. It is the coaching staff's job to get those players to turn potential into production. Jacksonville traded for Dareus and immediately improved in the run defense game by 3 yards per attempt. That obviously isn't ALL Dareus, but he's a big part of that.
We didn't have a proven loser. We had a talented roster that everybody thought was a good coach away from the playoffs. Pretending otherwise now that The Process is imploding is just disingenuous.