But I think that the team, if it continues down that road, needs more talent at RB *and* in the secondary.
Shead was a fine player, not quite as good as Maxwell I don't think (at least as far as fitting the system--Maxwell was a ball hawk), but I think we need a CB2 and, probably, a high-upside S/CB (like Shead, but cheaper and *hopefully* faster in order to be in man coverage like Maxwell was, which would let Sherman lock down his side of the field).
Honestly, it was a bad year for injuries. Not horrifyingly bad, but bad. Russell's legs were gone for 3/4 of the year; we didn't have a legit RB1 OR RB2 for the majority of the season, Kam got hurt, Bennett got hurt, Thomas got hurt, and the latter happened right when we needed him most. Bad timing, sure, but I think it exposed some depth issues in the organization that could stand to be addressed this offseason.
The D-line was good, if not flat-out great, for the majority of the season. Bennett and Avril did what they do, Clark took at least two full steps forward, the interior guys (including Reed) did what was needed and even Marsh got in on the fun for the majority of the season.
The LB corps is still strong, though an upgrade is still possible over Morgan (who looked good late, for sure, but wasn't a game-changer). Not sure much needs to be done there.
It really looks to me like they need to stuff the rb corps to the gills this offseason. That would probably solve most of this teams' issues on offense. And some better DB depth is going to be key, I think, given the inexorable march of Father Time on guys like Kam and Earl. When Kam can't lay out the punishment, and when Earl can't fly across the field due to his superior speed and instincts, this defense is going to be on the verge of all-out collapse. A little more quality depth there will be important.
The O-line...honestly, it's so competitive trying to acquire high-quality O-linemen that it seems like we're better off not going down that road.