As others have said, a full rewrite isn't needed. Go bit by bit.
Secondly the worst code you've ever seen is capable of pulling in 20 mil per year.
Was the best? There is something to be said for success and it really makes me wonder about what 'good code' really is suppose to look like.
Granted a lot of what you're describing sounds terrifying.
If you want to deal with it first thing you should do is stand up a testing server and backup the code. Get some E2E tests in place to keep track of expected behavior. All of this can be done without removing a line of code and you can do it yourself while the team goes about their merry business. This is where I would start.
Secondly the worst code you've ever seen is capable of pulling in 20 mil per year. Was the best? There is something to be said for success and it really makes me wonder about what 'good code' really is suppose to look like.
Granted a lot of what you're describing sounds terrifying.
If you want to deal with it first thing you should do is stand up a testing server and backup the code. Get some E2E tests in place to keep track of expected behavior. All of this can be done without removing a line of code and you can do it yourself while the team goes about their merry business. This is where I would start.