You're right on.
That's why you have to front load some contracts now, and be very careful about how many merely good players you sign to elite money contracts, or the guys you simply cannot do without (Goff, Gurley, Donald) might cause the team to have to make drastic cuts to keep them.
I know others on the board feel differently, but Watkins is simply not a "must keep". It's not like Watkins cannot be replaced with another good player, even if his replacement doesn't get as many TDs. Clearly Kupp and Woods are the core of the WR group.
Look at what the Seahawks had to do to keep their DBs and Russell Wilson. Their money so handcuffed the team, they couldn't afford a decent Oline. They couldn't get a good RB. It's a balancing act that I have little idea how to achieve, but it's the job of the FO to figure it out. Few ever get it right.
