I hear what your saying, getting good rookies on cheap contracts is great for building a team but the trades have helped to get us where we are now and not all rookies turn out to be as good as we expect. I think the Dante Fowler trade was a no brainer as they knew they had a real chance to do something and that edge position was a problem. Going into this year Dante is still out no.1 Edge and will probably start most games. If we had not have made that trade,who would be playing at edge this year, I don't think we would have signed a rookie who would have been ready to start day 1 and I dont think there was a FA who was close to Dante's level.
As it was,we signed Dante and he played a major part in us getting to a SB, that was huge for this franchise,maybe it was too soon for us but it was a great experience for this young team and hopefully it will put them in a much better position to win it in the future. Just having gone through that whole experience will make it easier for McVay, Goff, AD, etc to handle it next time.