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How To Avoid Tanking but Help Progress

Discussion in 'Other NFL' started by Galant, Nov 12, 2018.

  1. Galant

    Galant Love - Unity - Sacrifice - Eternity

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    With the Dolphins recent injuries and the resulting odds we're looking at another season stuck in the middle and that leads to thinking about tanking in order to gain a higher pick etc.

    There's more to success than just high draft picks, of course, and the picks themselves aren't guarantees, but in terms of improving your team, if you're not going to blow up your coaching staff etc (and maybe even if you are) picking good players is what you want to do, and thus draft picks are valuable assets, and tanking gains appeal as a way to do that.

    Of course, tanking is losing and losing is the opposite of what any team should be trying to do - for both the coaches, players, fans and league. This brings up the catch 22 though. Lose in the hopes of winning, or try to win but don't advance. (I know, the second part isn't the only option, you could try changing the coaches etc. but that can often lead to rebuilding the team - thus needing draft picks, or else just the change will mean one or two years of changes etc. Nothing is fixed, but there are plenty of teams who just can't make the leap, for whatever reason, and more/better draft picks is a quicker potential solution).

    Is there something else the league can do to help teams stuck in the middle but not compromise winning/competition?

    Any suggestions?

    For my part, I was thinking about adding a progressive points-based type system where by teams who aren't progressing in win-records over the course of multiple season get awarded extra draft picks in order to boost them. Not sure of the details, e.g. how many seasons, how much improvement, but the basic idea is that if you have a team that has been stuck in the same win percentage for let's say 3 or 4 seasons, they are awarded an extra pick or two. That then builds incrementally each season where they'd don't progress. Eventually, extra picks should yield progress and then the bonus is removed.

    Something like that would help to keep teams to progress whilst also trying their hardest to compete, instead of giving up in order to improve matters.

    Thoughts?
     
  2. djphinfan

    djphinfan Season Ticket Holder Club Member

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    If you take over a franchise, and you want your own guys, you play everyone on your roster to see where they stand.. you separate the guys who you want in the future..

    It’s ok to do this..your not gonna have a team full of starters because not everyone is gonna buy in so you must play your backups and such..

    It’s proper tanking for a new coach and GM..
     
    Galant likes this.
  3. cna

    cna New Member

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    Only thing I can think of to discourage teams from intentional losing would be to have a draft lottery like the NBA, but I hope they don't do that.
     
  4. Galant

    Galant Love - Unity - Sacrifice - Eternity

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    Hey CNA, welcome to the forums.

    Is there any way you would work to promote progress/improvement in struggling teams?
     
  5. texanphinatic

    texanphinatic Senior Member

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    Except the NBA is even more rife with blatant and obvious tanking. It's a big part of baseball now as well, and seeping into hockey.

    And frankly, the NFL has it as well. You can't tell me the Colts didn't try hard to get Andrew Luck, and honestly we should have done the same. Mediocre teams either need to bottom out or get lucky and draft/sign a real difference maker. Look at the Saints last year. They were middling to bad for a bit due to defense. Then they hit big on a draft and some signings and ended up making a playoff run and are back this year. Granted, they have Drew Brees, but that's part of it and why I will never be on board with the "we can win with this guy if we just do X" mentality that so many possess about guys like Tannehill, Bortles, Mariota, etc.

    I don't really think it's necessarily a BAD thing to tell your fanbase it might be a tough slog for a year or two as you make changes and do a step back to go forward. The problem is that teams don't want to reduce their revenue while going through these phases. Nobody wants to pay full price for tickets or gear for a team that is not even trying to win, yet ownership and the leagues don't want to do much to change pricing.

    If you want to avoid tanking though, you probably need to just kill drafts. All college/non-pro players become free agents that can be directly signed. You may need to give bad teams a bit of extra salary relief or creative structuring so they can lure top QBs and such.
     

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