Yup, my thoughts exactly on the restructuring of Baldwin's deal. It's the football equivalent of mortgaging the future. Imagine a baseball team literally deciding that to afford a player this year, they will lower their payroll by about 2 million for the next three! It sounds bizarre out of salary cap context, but there we are. At least it's just two mil a year this time.
Personally, I'm not terribly worried about the Hawks hitting cap hell anytime soon. The cap keeps going up, and they keep juggling like pros. And again, if they ever hit dire cap straights, they can just tighten their belts and let one (1) pro bowler walk, and be just fine, thank you. This team is so good that it really could function just fine without Graham, or Avril, or KJ, or Bennett, or maybe even Kam or Sherm. Personally though, I'd let them walk in that order, all things being equal. I think Russell can make just about any pass catcher look good when he's on his game (which is what happened to Kearse for a few years there), KJ is like the Kyle Seager of linebackers, and the D-line does have one more DE than it needs to be an elite unit right now. If Shelly acts as a force magnifier, by all means keep them all, but otherwise letting one go would probably be a good way to leverage *marginal value*.
As for Sherm himself, I love the man with an undying passion. That aside, I'm kind of split on how much the defense would miss him. It might be that Carroll, who I think is hands down the best DB man in the league, can patch together a Browner-esque Frankenstein replacement, but who knows. Keep in mind, Sherm and Earl used to be the two guys we'd never seen this defense without during the LOB era. When Earl got hurt last year, his absence created a plethora of problems, because he acts as a true force amplifier to the entire backfield. People assume that a shutdown corner doesn't have the same effect, but I'm not sure that's true. Think about how much easier it is to scheme, knowing that one third of the field is taken care of. Short, deep, run or pass, doesn't matter, Sherm has it dead to rights. The other team probably won't even try it more than a few times a game. Now you can shade Earl the other way, bring Kam down into the box, and give LB help in the slot or the opposite flat. Basically, by shrinking the playable field I suspect that Sherm makes every other DB and LB better before the ball is even snapped. Add that to his personal HOF talents, like the best fade route coverage in history (maybe) and the best CB tackling in the league (definitely), as well as the ability to bait QBs into ~4 interceptions per year even though they know that's what he's doing, and I figure I'd let everyone but Earl and maybe Bobby go before I parted ways with Richard.
As for watching them play the run... man, it's a joy. All of their linemen can play the run well, even Avril who really isn't built for it. Having Wagz and KJ filling the gaps, with Kam and Earl flying up behind them and Sherman begging some poor running back to try him in the open field, it's really beautiful to watch. My favorite is when teams try to string it out towards the sideline and get the edge. The second the o-line fires towards the sideline, I start chuckling and mumble to myself "never try to beat the Hawks to the outside. They ARE faster than you. Fact." Now with Shelly, other teams are may not even wait until the end of the first half to abandon the run. They'll start doing it in their Tuesday gameplanning sessions.