You guys who cannot see how this team quickly turns into a 7 win team need only consider three very possible, perhaps probable scenarios.
1) Olsen may be the real deal in a couple years, but he is going to be bad this year. He is going to neutralize an incredible stable of playmakers because frankly, he is some combination of over rated and under prepared. Olsen will single handedly lose us multiple games. He has looked terrible with the exception of a couple small window throws in practice settings.
2) The savior Duke seems to have tricked everyone into thinking that he can string together several consecutive healthy games. Hopefully he can do the same for NFL GM's come draft day next May, but newsflash, 300+ lb Dlineman will still break him if they fall on him, and he will still get concussions throwing his head into blocks, 10 pounds of muscle or not. The writing is on the wall with him, he needs to be a limited touch playmaker, but he can't here because we failed to get another RB in his class, we missed on Collins, and we missed on Cook and Michel. Yearby is tiny and is coming off an injury also, so don't assume much there. Duke will be the workhorse, and he will be hurt for stretches this year. Duke needs someone to at the very least split the carries or you can set your over/under for him at about 1000 yards and 8 games again this season for you betting men.
3) We are relying on DT's that have never taken a D1 snap. I don't care how little sunshine Wyche has, or how hot the candy paint is on the car he is pushing around, he has no experience against anything remotely close to a Florida State OL. Same goes for Hurtelou. If Wyche and Hurtelou do not come in and dominate, we are going to get destroyed on defense again, regardless of young guys getting older, and slow safeties getting faster. Just like Olsen will make everyone else on offense look worse, poor DT play will make everyone else on D look worse. LB depth won't matter if they are getting blocked because we can't two gap with two DT's that are physically shocked and inexperienced in the scheme, just like our improved DB's will not make plays if our pass rush gets double teamed.
Some good points, but it ignores that those aren't new issues:
1) Olsen definitely has some growing up to do, but Morris was far from a star QB for us, so while a problem, it may not be as big a problem as you pose.
2) This is not a negative change from last year. The situation was the same last year, and in fact, we did only have him for 8 games. So as far as the RB situation, what needs to be considered is how is it overall this year compared to last. Let's see, we have Duke back, plus we have Edwards with more experience, Tucker who shows some promise as a change of pace, and Yearby can contribute. So the Duke situation is the same, the back up situation is better than last year. Overall at least a small positive.
3) Again, no one is saying our DT situation is not a problem, but I don't see it as worse than last year. We have Pierre still. Porter did little-to-nothing last year. Wyche and Heurtelou should at least be equivalent to Porter. We also have Moore and Hamilton with some more experience, and can at least provide a little better depth than we had before. Moten may be able to come in and give the other DTs a breather while injecting some agility into the DT position at least a couple plays/game. So our DT situation sucks, but is likely better, or at least not worse, than last year.
Meanwhile, our LB and Safety situation are both big areas of improvement.