From what's leaking so far, Geno's cap hit should be well under $20 million and we need to cut some of the defensive players from last year, they did not play up to their contracts. This contract along with the necessary cuts leaves us room to pay the rookies and still get a few key free agent players.
I'm not sure how our defense can get much worse than it was for many of our losses last season. A rookie qb is almost a guarantee of needing at least a year or two to get into contention. Keeping Geno keeps a pretty good offense stay together (for the most part) and allows the front office to concentrate on improving us where we need it most, on defense.