If you wanted to draw a line back to Jeff Ireland being hired to run the draft you could probably go there too. They got Rankins, Bell and Onyemata in 2016; all 3 of those guys have been good and Rankins especially has become one of the better interior pass rushers in the league. Then in 17 they got Lattimore, Anzalone and Williams. So that's 6 good starters in two drafts. Then Okafor, Klein and Demario Davis have been really good free agent pickups and trading for Eli Apple looks like a win too at the moment.
But really I think it's more about the coaching. It's not like the players they have now are really better than Jenkins, Vaccaro, Hicks, etc. They're just better coached. Depth helps too.