I think the team will benefit from a 3rd year of continuity and this will be the best squad we've seen since 2016 -- so they'll win a couple more of those coin flip games we've been losing the last couple years -- but a below average offense will prevent them from competing with the top teams in the league.
I basically expect them to be hovering around .500 for the season. Fangio will call a good defense, but he will have 3-4 inexplicable and inexcusable errors as HC. It's ironic because Vic's philosophy when he came in was to cure the team of the "Death by inches" -- but in reality it seems to have become this team's brand. They are just a little bit too deficient everywhere to overcome the best teams -- they aren't wildly incompetent like under Vance Joseph, but nevertheless there is too much mediocrity still baked into the organization whether it's the HC, OC, QB or LBs.
Lock and Teddy are who we thought they were. Lock will show some flashes, but ultimately will be immature, wildly inconsistent and unreliable -- he'll be in the bottom half of the league in INT rate. He'll give awkward press conferences where he seems unsure of himself. It will become clearer and clearer that he is not a starting NFL QB with each passing week. Teddy will see some time, and he will be the game manager we know him to be. Again - not as deficient as in prior years, but mediocre.
So glass half full is that if we get to 9-8 or 10-7 and squeak into the playoffs that is an improvement for this organization -- glass half empty is that there is a ceiling of basically 10 wins and one playoff win if they exceed all expectations.
If we make the playoffs Vic will be back. If we don't, he gone. I expect we'll have a new QB and OC in 2022 at minimum.