Pretty fair. However, while recently the "rookie QB" thing is true, that hasn't always been the case. We had quite the stretch where it wasn't a Rookie deal QB taking you to the Promise Land. The issue always lies in trenches. The O-Line has been completely neglected and was serviced for a large portion of the latter half of the 2010 decade by very inferior linemen who were not even going to be 2nd on their former team's depth charts the next season if they were to resign. Then the ones who were serviceable, they ended up always getting hurt or just flat out missed the entire season. It is why I have always felt Zimmer's plan was to go the Ravens style and just build a completely elite defensive core from the Top-Down and keep the games at like 21-13 or 13-9 type games. The issue with that, is while the Defense was pretty amazing during that last NFC Championship Game run -- the offense completely fell off the wagon. Same with the many early exits because the offense squandered chances.
I think they knew the window was closing on keeping the elite defense together and if they didn't act now, that window would close and it would be another 5 year cycle of getting players up to the level where they were playing Zimmer Defense. In the end, the signing probably hurt their ability to keep at least 1 veteran DB on the team and make a push to get another Tackle or Guard to keep whoever was QB'ing upright.
