This is where I'm at, too. Last season's starting WRs were two literal first round picks and Whittington, a reliable possession guy and ++blocker. Sure, we're deeper this year, but unless there's an injury, that doesn't matter much as it relates to Sark's preferred WR rotation. Bond is the only transfer that profiles to a first round type in a contract year, so it's a pretty big leap to say we're any better on paper than the results of the season. Not only do you have to make the assumption that someone is going to fill the glue guy role, but you'd also have to project someone to ascend like AD. The problems here feel obvious but a) Whittington was a WR rarity and no others have exhibited those leadership/willingness/teammate intangibles, so who do we really think is going to fill this role? B) AD breaking out was predictable and built on 2 years of SEC/CFP experience - Golden is a good get, but he doesn't come in with the same experience or accomplishments and in turn, is less likely to backfill Mitchell 1:1. Otherwise, Bolden isn't Worthy (and isn't here yet), Cook should be great but is inexperienced, the other second year guys are < Cook, and then you're left with Freshman. Worthy and Mitchell gained yards that Ewers will need to manufacture with his play this year to fill the gap (which I think he can do).
At RB, we're in a more promising spot than we were a year ago, but the actual outcome was that our 3rd year RB2 became a superstar out of nowhere. We had very little idea about what we had in Brooks, but that's not a reason to think it'll happen again, especially in consecutive seasons. I'm setting my own expectations as follows:
Baxter - 1k yds, Sark always has a thousand yard rusher and anything more from Baxter is gravy
Blue - 750 yds, and I bet half of them come from chunk plays. For me, he's best utilized situationally - not as a rotational RB2
Wisner/Gibson/Clark - 750 yds, In practical application, I think two of three become RB2 by committee.
It's all up to Ewers' next step, imo. If he can shoulder the burden of running the offense more effectively, we won't need the same level of skill talent to match achievement. But if he can't, it's a dropoff.