You make some decent points, but there is one that I think is just plain wrong, and that relates to Gilmore. I don't think we were that bothered about keeping him, at all. Pretty much irrespective of any cap situation, you don't give 'man coverage' money, to a CB who is going to be playing 'zone coverage'. And Gilmore wanted his money. Tbh, I seriously doubt that the Gilmore decision, had anything at all to do with Whaley getting canned.
Back to the cap situation. It isn't ideal, but it also isn't that bad, and there is still room to restructure guys if absolutely necessary, (Dareus and Glenn) which could free up quite a bit of room. We are by no means in 'cap hell'. If they really wanted to keep Gilmore, they could have found the money, I'm sure, especially after the Taylor restructure, and if they had done something with Dareus and Glenn.
Now, you might be right, albeit perhaps for the wrong reasons, in that the cap situation is part of, or one of, the 'few areas we need to get better in', according to Pegula. I'm thinking about the previous year, when we didn't have enough room to put the 2nd level tender on Hogan, and then simply couldn't afford to match the Patsies offer. I think that one stung the Pegulas, especially with the struggles we ended up having at the WR position, and was followed up by not giving Gillislee the 2nd round tender either. Who once again goes to the Patsies, because we decided not to match their offer.
Now, the above is speculation, but it is based on facts, and added to a couple of other things, may have been the tipping point, although we simply don't know.
QB aside, I don't think Whaleys drafting has been that bad. At least a couple of the picks who aren't here any more, were turned into better players, Alonso for Shady, being the obvious example. I'd also say that some of the ups and downs of form, that have some of those picks being castigated, are probably more to do with coaching changes (hence scheme), than the ability of the players. While the jury is still out on a few guys, Whaley has only whiffed once in the 1st round with EJ, and once in the 2nd round, with Kouandjio, and he might still turn out to be okay, although recent events make that a lot less likely than it was 6 months ago.
We will almost certainly miss his staffs ability to find guys off the street, to come in and contribute, when the injury bug hits us this year, and it's those guys I wanted to be retained, as I think they've done nothing wrong, and a lot right.
Still, it is what it is, and providing we can get someone sorted out promptly, it's time to move on I suppose. Our rookie HC doesn't need to be wasting his time playing at being GM, when there's a team to get coached up.