I am sure a lot of people sleep better at night thinking their team being absolutely terrible is on purpose. Instead of the reality that everyone in the building is trying their absolute hardest to win, yet are still getting embarrassed. Unfortunately, your favorite team isn’t “tanking” or trying to lose on purpose, they just suck.
I’ll explain why no one in any organization would want to lose on purpose and if they do, they’re fools who won’t last much longer anyway.
Players
This one is kind of obvious. People never really accuse players of tanking. The reason is that since this is a performance-based job it is unreasonable to think a player would sabotage their career for the betterment of the organization. An organization that will get rid of them without a second thought because of poor performance.
Coaches
The only instance of a coach tanking a game for the team’s draft status was Lovie Smith in 2014. He pulled the starters (except Josh McCown) up 13 at the half and ended up losing that game to secure the first pick. Look at what happened. Lovie was fired the next year and the team had five years of the most polarizing QB play the league has ever seen. Do you think that was worth it for Lovie or the Bucs?
Front Offices
The most frequent thing I see among those who actually believe teams in the NFL tank is “players and coaches don’t tank, front offices do.” If that’s true, then why? Everyone in this profession, that isn’t an owner, is judged based on their performance. The “Suck for Luck” era ended with Colts general manager, Bill Polian, being fired after finishing 2-14 along with head coach Jim Caldwell. Thinking that those guys would risk their career to help a team that they might not be a part of in the future is extremely silly.
Drafting Isn’t An Exact Science
People can pound the table about this guy being a sure-thing, or that guy being the real deal. However, the reality is that this part of building an NFL franchise is still extremely unknown. The overwhelming majority thought Jameis Winston was the guy. So to purposely waste an entire season, while taking on a whole lot of embarrassment for someone that isn’t a sure thing is not very smart.
What About The Rest Of The Team?
The main thing these “tanks” are in pursuit of is a franchise QB. However, if the rest of the team is terrible how can this one player save your franchise? Let’s look at the most recent first overall pick that the Bengals “tanked” for. Has Joe Burrow played well up until his injury? Absolutely. However, they were going to fall to 2-7-1 with him anyway.
Then there is the unfortunate injury he suffered. An injury that is going to cost him the remainder of this season and most of-if, not all of next year.
It means nothing to draft a franchise QB if you don’t have some combination that includes an offensive line who can protect him, a running game to make it easy for him, a defense that can make some stops so the offense doesn’t have to score 40 to win, and a coach who can get the team to improve on a week-to-week basis.
The best example of that? Ryan Tannehill. For seven seasons he consistently had a horrible offensive line “protecting” him, at best a very inconsistent running game, a defense that he could not rely on, and two “offensive guru” head coaches that made everyone around them worse. Tannehill doesn’t really even need an average offensive line, defense, or coaching. Just give him one well-rounded WR and a guy like Derrick Henry and all of sudden he’s looking like a guy who could make his second Pro Bowl in as many seasons.
The Stigma Of Tanking
Before the 2019 season began everyone thought the Dolphins were tanking. Including Jadeveon Clowney, who Miami was trying to acquire in exchange for Larmey Tunsil. That in itself is enough to discourage a team from tanking. Free agency and trades definitely have equal importance when it comes to building a team. There is a reason why once the tanking stigma was lifted from the Dolphins they were able to get guys like Byron Jones, Emmanuel Ogbah, Kyle Van Noy, and Shaq Lawson from teams who were playing with playoff and Super Bowl aspirations.
The Reality Of Rooting For A Bad Team
Again I am sure fans of bad teams wish these poor performances were on purpose because everyone in the organization has their eyes on the future. However, that is never the case.
A team like the Jets isn’t tanking. The amount of money they’ve spent in free agency just two off-seasons ago does not warrant being 0-11 this season and 7-20 overall since these moves were made. They are just a bad team who have some of the worst coaching this sport has ever seen.
A team like the Jaguars will more than likely be picking in the top 10 for the 13th time in 14 seasons. How will “tanking” for Trevor Lawrence or Justin Fields yield different results than the ones we have seen for over a decade? The reality is the Jaguars are just a poorly run franchise despite their best efforts. This most recent “tank job” just cost Dave Caldwell his job. Do you think Caldwell is willing to sacrifice his job for the betterment of this team? Seriously?
In conclusion, just think really hard and ask yourself “can one draft prospect fix all these problems?” before you accuse a team of tanking. Because the answer 100% of the time is “no”.