Looking back...

Great question, and I think deserves a two-fold answer. How I felt at the time and how I feel today after some time to reflect.

Forte - I never understood why he was let go, but I suspect there might have been some residual loyalty to Lovie or some other baggage that Fox deemed disloyal. I have no idea because just saying it was financial without even having made an offer seems disingenuous to me. I was against this move and I thought a back could learn from him for another year. Today I feel better about the decision. Not because the decision was better than I thought but because of Howard. And anyone that says we let Forte go because we had Howard is just making shit up. Howard was not the Forte replacement. Langford was. Except he wasn't. So you can't say they let Forte go because they had Howard. They just got lucky. Fox didn't even play him. I'm ok with how it turned out because Howard looks like the real deal, not because I like the decision more. I still think it was a mistake to let him go because we had Langford.

Bennett - I was torn on this from the beginning. Bennett is good player. He is also a closet head case. I was meh on letting him go because I think he was a locker room factor, but not sure of that. I did not think the decision to let him go was a good decision because we had no production to replace him. Plus, I think part of why he was let go was because Fox couldn't effectively deal with him. Looking back, I'm not sure I've changed my mind much on this. If anything I may have moved towards the side of thinking it was a mistake because as time has moved on, I think that Fox's inability to deal with him was a bigger factor than it should have been. Bennett was difficult, but not a true NFL turs. Fox should have been able to work with him Belichich seems to have no problems doing it.

Brandon Marshall - Another one that I really struggled with. I was behind him being let go because I think he was a locker room issue. However, I think part of that was his frustration with the status quo, which I agree with him on. Some feel differently, but I did not like the fact that he had a second career going while he was still in football. Set yourself up, but focus on football - you get paid a crap load of money to do that. Set yourself up so that you can transition after you retire, but not both at once. I did not like that he wanted off the team if it meant a total focus on football. So, I guess I thought the move was shitty but necessary. As I look back, I wish we would have kept him and Fox been able to get him to focus on football. I'm not sure anyone really could have done that, but I am thinking Fox gave him an ultimatum rather than really tried to talk things through with him. So in time I have come to blame Fox more for this as I have come to a different perspective on Fox's interpersonal skills.

Slauson - I did not like that move than and I still don;t like that move. We were paying him a lot of money and I think we are still 2 people shy of a great group of guys. Slauson could play. Maybe he could not play T, but neither can some guys we have now. He should have been given the chance or we could have kept Long at RT. The point for me is he was cheap and useful. Not sure why we did that.
 

Still not good enough for a title run.

Howard may have been passed on in the draft with Forte signing fresh ink.

Bennett and Marshall would have suffered the same turnover at QB.

The middle of the OL has been doing just fine without Slauson.

Better weapon could have dragged us to six wins, but the injuries were too much to put up ten wins.

How you think about this probably depends on whether you think Cutler has been terrible this year because he is terrible or whether you think he has been terrible because he got killed by terrible OL play in the first few games.

If you think the latter then you probably see at least the Slauson move as bad and maybe the Bennett move too.

Marshall doesn't seem like so much of a bad move this season - but he would have been very useful in 2015.

So if Marshall was here the season would be so much better?  Marshall's QB situation with the Jets is no worse than what it is here.  Tell me how Marshall helps this team build toward the future.  Or are you just looking for a couple more wins in a losing season?