#1 Pick vs. Momentum

Out of almost 50 posts in this thread I have seen only one poster with 2 posts who sounds like he wants the team to mail in the rest of the season.
The rest of us know the team won`t do that and we wouldn`t want them to.
So, why so many posts in trying to tell us how we want the team to fail?

I`m just trying to find a silver lining to this dark cloud of a season.

 

so pretty much if we get the number one pick in the draft we will have traded the 33rd pick in the 2011 draft for armanti edwards

Nice

 

Football is, clearly, a strategic game. Agreed? Ok, cool.

Can someone tell me when it would be a strategically sound approach to lose as many games as possible at any point of any season to maybe, just maybe, land the #1 selection in the draft?

If someone can convince me that this is of sound thinking, then do it. Otherwise, you're playing into the paper-bag club.

 

In answer:

this

 

Maybe if there were a guy coming out who who was clearly head and shoulders above everyone else in the draft you play to get him. I am not sure that has ever happened in football. Lebron James was that way in the NBA. Maybe Peyton Manning was that kind of guy, but you never know for sure, Eli when #1 but he has been good but not great.

 

Well, lets try this analogy.

Lets go with the war vs. the battle scenario. Lets say each season is a battle with each game a skirmish. Winning a Superbowl would be like winning the whole war.
You have chances during the battles to gain some strategic high ground even though gaining that high ground you have to sacrifice some of your troops. The end result would that the higher ground(i.e. the #1 pick) should give you better control over what is on a lower level.
I know there are no guarantees that a #1 pick would pan out, but at least you`re giving your troops and the folks that are counting on you the idea that winning the war is the ultimate goal.

Again I`ll say that appears to be only one or two posters on here that are saying the team should roll over and play dead. Maybe you just need to quote the ones that are sticking in your crawl and have a one on one with them. Between you and Mags, you`re making it appear as if its you two against the lynch mob and thats not the way i`m seeing it.

 

there are just plenty of us who desperately want to feel like winners . .. the panthers were a lost cause so early that i personally switched gears to my daughters new school (South Carolina) and it's still been a fun football year. I suggest focusing on your favorite college team for a while guys

GO COCKS!!!!!!!

 

I think there's plenty Mags and I would disagree on, philosophically.

There's merit to your argument, but I still have a hard time putting my mind inside an NFL locker room, and thinking that it would be acceptable, in any way, to ever aim for a loss. And, it's pretty hard to have both--meaning "let's go out and play our asses off, execute well, but play just poorly enough to lose in the end."

At least, deliberately. In 2001, this team had a certain "knack" for that.

 

first of all, this post is, like this season, in jest. i can't take this season or this topic seriously. but, for the fun of conversation let's pretend that this topic has some merit.

i agree that in the nfl, it is rare that there is a sure-fire difference maker. thelt's comparison to the nba is legit, as in that league it did once make sense to play to lose in order to win the #1. hense the lottery. in the nfl, losing to get the #1 is rarely, if ever, justified, hense we don't have a lottery (although seeing what some teams have given up in the past in order to move into the #1 would argue that not everyone would agree with that view).

as seen below, there are may more misses than hits at #1. but if you look at the draft history, i think that you will probably also discover that the likelyhood of picking an all-pro player is much greater in the top dozen picks than any other draft position. so why is it that there are so many busts at #1? my theory is that teams in that position usually are DESPERATE at QB. so that's where they are going to take their chance (unless they're too scared that they will screw the pooch and then make a "safe" lineman choice ... and we will inevitably see arguments between fans that are risk takers and those that are not). so, you see lot's of QBs being taken at #1 and them being busts.

why so many QB busts? the common reasoning is that it is tuff to evaluate QBs. but, i wonder if it's more that in some years there's just no great QBs coming outa college, so teams take a shot on the best of what's available because they are so DESPERATE. in the same year Peyton was taken #1, Leaf was taken #2.

so ... my thinking is that it can be a really big deal having #1 IF you feel there's a HOF caliber QB coming out. In that case, it would make sense to me to try to get him even if it means playing to lose (after you are already 1-10). in that case, i think whatever little benefit supposedly achieved by ending the season on an upnote (like that did us a lot of good this season) wouldn't be worth the benefit of winning the #1 pick in the draft. i would argue this even if you weren't desperate for a QB (i just dunno if we are or are not) because of the value of the pick if that type of QB coming out in the draft.

so ... the question is then is Luck that good? if so, you should play to lose.

besides this above ridiculous attempt to justify playing to lose, being in a position to draft the top QB would be so much more fun than being in a position to draft our next Jordan Gross. i like fun. so that's my vote and what i will be rooting for ....


2009 Matthew Stafford QB
2008 Jake Long OT
2007 JaMarcus Russell QB
2006 Mario Williams DE
2005 Alex Smith QB
2004 Eli Manning QB
2003 Carson Palmer QB
2002 David Carr QB
2001 Michael Vick QB
2000 Courtney Brown DE
1999 Tim Couch QB
1998 Peyton Manning QB
1997 Orlando Pace OT
1996 Keyshawn Johnson WR
1995 Ki-Jana Carter RB
1994 Dan Wilkinson DT
1993 Drew Bledsoe QB
1992 Steve Emtman DT
1991 Russell Maryland DT
1990 Jeff George QB
1989 *Troy Aikman QB
1988 Aundray Bruce LB
1987 Vinny Testaverde QB
1986 Bo Jackson RB
1985 Bruce Smith DE
1984 Irving Fryar WR
1983 *John Elway QB
1982 Kenneth Sims DT
1981 George Rogers RB
1980 Bill Sims RB
1979 Tom Cousineau LB
1978 *Earl Campbell RB

 

Not sure how this got twisted into people advocating the team play to lose.

I cannot believe that would happen anywhere, but in this case, Fox will be doing anything he can to win if for no other reason than protecting his resume.

As for me, I could really give a shit about this year, it has been shot to hell already. I do want to have a good team to watch in the future and a higher pick is more valuable before the draft, especially if we can swing a deal to trade down so I am rooting for us to get the highest pick available. It is not really about getting Luck, or not, to me.