Well, let's take it position group by position group.

QB: Love should be slightly better just for another year of experience. At backup, from a purely athletic perspective, Willis is clearly better than 37-year-old Tyrod Taylor. However, Taylor has gotten rave reviews from several different QBs he has worked with as to how he helped them prepare, as well as in-game stuff. Frankly, no team is going anywhere on a backup QB, no matter how great of an athlete he might be. Therefore, I want a backup QB that does more to help the starter be successful. On that basis, I say the QB position in 2026 is improved.

RB: At this point, I completely discount M. Lloyd, and fully expect him to be injured again the first time he takes a snap. 2025 on paper was better because they still had E. Wilson.

WR: The comparison is really the known quantity of Doubs and Wicks, vs. the (so far completely unrealized) potential of Williams and Golden. Looking at pure athletic ability, there's no comparison. However, lots of pure athletes have failed in the NFL. Really, Wicks had all the athletic ability in the world, but he just never could get completely over the drop problem. It's hard to say this position group is any better off than last year - but there is a chance, whereas last year, we knew what those guys were, and it was found lacking.

TE: It's all the same guys - I see no reason to compare at all. Possible slight improvement based on when Kraft will be back available (hopefully his availability this year will coincide with the Nov-Dec playoff push).

OL: Losing Walker and (whatever was left of) Jenkins, I think will be addition through subtraction. According to Gute, Morgan would have been LT last year had they not had injury situations requiring him to play other positions. Unfortunately for last year, Morgan sucked at those other positions. He's an OT, not an interior guy. Locking him in at LT =improvement on paper immediately. Fingers crossed that starting five can stay healthy. Locking the starting five in from day one of camp will be a drastic improvement in itself from the last few years of the LaFleur Shuffle. On that basis alone, I say that 'on paper', the OL should be much better than last year's dreadful performance.

DL: They brought in one guy, which means that (when Wyatt is down), they will now have one decent player. That is one more than they had last year. This position, on paper, is improved.

Edge: They dumped Rashan Gary, whose performance overall was never close to that contract. GOOD! They dumped Enagbare, whose motor and level of effort were among the highest on the team - BAD!! This also clears the way (once again) to waste a bunch of snaps on Milk Carton - BAD!! But they do have some younger up-and-comers waiting in the wings to start taking up those snaps as the year wears on (just like what happened with Gary toward the end of last year). But on paper, right now, I cannot say this position group has improved at all.

LB: Not improved from 2025 - all they did was lose Walker. Maybe someone from camp will step up, but I still feel like the defense was at its best with Q Walker and E Cooper both on the field. But we'll see - different coordinator, different system, etc...

CB: On paper, it couldn't get much worse than 2025's group, so yes, they should be improved. But that's damning with faint praise - that group was so poor last year that there's no where to go but up...

S: All the same guys. Not improved from 2025, but really didn't need to.

K: You just never know. They've drafted lots of specialists higher than Smack, and they ended up not making it out of camp.

P: Same guy, no improvement, and none needed really.

LS: Same questionable LS from last year. Sketchy there.

So overall:

Groups better: QB, OL, Interior DL, CB

Groups Worse: RB, Edge, LB,

Same/Could Go Either Way: WR, TE, S, K, P, LS

So that's five groups better, 3 worse off, and 6 that are pretty much the same.