Covid year also threw a wrench in things. ML was/is heavily reliant on the salary cap increase by year. He, sorta got caught off guard, and he was forced to do contracts he wasn’t planning on. I don’t fault him for that, being that no one saw that pandemic stuff happening
Lots of things can catch a team off guard that weren’t planned for. An injury like Ram, an underperforming playing like Byrd, a new coach that wants a different QB, or a bad apple like Junior Galette.