I'd hope Benning is eating more minutes, then Merkley, have Merkley 3rd pair & PP2.

Don’t think Benning is a 2nd pairing caliber player tho. Could be a really solid shutdown pair w/ Vlasic.

Merkley might not be a 2nd pair guy yet either but could try it out at first. Hopefully playing with a high compete guy like Ferraro would help.

Yep. Merkley's a natural replacement for the type of player Burns was for the lineup (people forget that the last few seasons, Burns hasn't been all that physical either, like Merkley). He's perfect with Ferraro on the 2nd pairing. Obviously there's going to be serious growing pains and it might not work out (especially at least for this year), but that should be the thought process, with, as you said, hopefully has Benning paired with Vlasic to give him a younger version of Braun (at best) and maybe have a resurgent season.