oh i agree 100% that this will be a long road, but that doesn't mean you hold off on things that should be decided now, like:
1) deangelo being here longterm, kids the offensive talent that teams salivate over, and he's figuring out his D game by game
2)kreider being resigned (as long as his ask isn't absolutely ridiculously out of this world (i dont think it will be))
3) nieves, who is still young, being pegged as that guy for the 4C position, since he will still be young-ish when were ready to compete again. the other option is not committing and ending up signing a veteran/journeyman (which rarely works out aside from moore)
4) identifying our glaring weaknesses that need to be filled for this to be successful. in fact, isn't that the point of the rebuild? to get the top end D and C that we need?