Redskins tanked 2010 season and will tank 2011 season and I'm OK with it!

[SkindaNFC]

One word to describe Shanahan: inscrutable.

I have a very aberrant theory -- Shanahan wants to have a poor season next year, and a high draft pick in the 2012 draft thus making it easier to get to Mr. Luck or perhaps even Landry Jones (personal preference of mine, he seems like the quintessential bootleg QB). It is demonstrable that Shanahan/FO has succumb to the idea of "rebuilding" and abandoned the "win now" attitude. If they are in rebuilding mode then they don't expect to contend, so if your going to lose than you may as well lose bad to win big in the draft. To digress a little further, the worst team in the league (imo) at the end of the year is not the team with the worst record it is the team with the highest win total but failed to make the PO's thus leaving them with no accolades and the worst draft position (out of all the teams that did not make the PO's). I'm sure I sound off my hinge and this all sounds a bit crazy, and smells like a conspiracy theory, but its not impossible (see LeBron James and Cleveland Cavaliers). A deeper look shows it is not out of the Redskins' capability to do such a thing. When the Redskins were mathematically eliminated from the PO's they benched McNabb to "evaluate" Rex Grossman; Rex had a greater chance of losing while maintaining the facade that they were still trying to win. When it comes to Mike Shanahan, he never tips his hand and will only harp on the cards he presently holds. Its more than likely that Rex Grossman will be back as a Redskin and will be the 2011 holdover at QB, as he was taking turns running the offense (along with John Beck) at the Player-only workout held on April 19th. But either way with Rex Grossman or John Beck at the helm, this team is destined for great failure, which in my book is A-OK if we land a Sam Bradford, Matt Ryan, Joe Flacco, or a Matt Stafford that has the potential to step in immediately and deliver us from mediocrity and carry us into greatness for the next decade.

-HTTR

________________

Added May 6th, 2011: From our own dugout, this article just drives my point home a little more and he probably articulates the "theory" much better:

http://www.hogshaven.com/2011/5/5/2153811/washington-redskins-announce-andrew-luck-in-2012-plan

Also for the record, out of my own error thinking people would read more than just the title to this thread I should have made it more obvious that I think the Skins tanked the end of the last season

[SkinsHokieFan]

While I agree with your sentiment (although paragraphs are your friend) you are gonna get ripped here

[WhoRUSupposed2Be]

I guess anything is possible right, hope TK doesn't put the hammer down on you for this thread though.

[KDawg]

I have an honest question for SkindaNFC...

What do you do for a living? (no, I'm not asking because I want to make a joke, or be critical. I'm asking because there's a point to be made here and I want to put it on terms you can relate to.)

[oldskoolskins]

Hmmm... you also probably think we didn't land on the moon, JFK's shooting was a government conspiracy and Bin Laden is still alive.

[lovetoaster]

I am not OK with it. There are a lot of fans that pay a lot of money to go to FedEx Field to watch this team.

And we did not tank the 2010 season. We just were not good. If your theory is true than why would the team play hard and beat Jacksonville late last year to get a worse draft pick when they had nothing to play for? Sure, there was no supposed "prize" like Luck at the top of the draft, but we could have hypothetically gotten a better player or more picks to trade down. Why didn't we just run it up the middle three times and punt. I just don't buy it.

This is not the corrupt NBA and I would hope that my team would have more integrity than to tank a season to try and get a draft pick. There are no sure things in sports. What if Luck or Jones, or Foles or Barkley, or whoever gets hurt or just plain sucks next year. It has happened before (see Locker, Jake). What if Luck does not want to come out again....he is only a junior. Also, you have to take into consideration that there are going to be other bad teams in this league. The Panthers are still going to suck. The Bills are still going to suck. Regardless of what we do between now and the start of the season, I think that they are still going to be worse than we are. I just don't see us getting worse in year two of the Shanahan regime when he is not exactly a young man. That is not what he was brought here to do.

I am pretty confident that our team is not going to go out there and purposely try and lose. Unfortunately there are going to be probably hundreds of threads that essentially say the same thing as this one over the next six months.

But hey, in the highly unlikely event that the team does tank to try and get the #1 pick, I will still root for them, but they can have my season tickets back. This is not a fanbase that will put up with pulling something like that.

[SkindaNFC]

@SkinsHokieFan - They used to be my friend, but then we got into an argument! Kidding aside yeah I'm sure I could put some breaks in there, and as for the ripping... people are entitled to their opinion as am I, and I know fully well that this could stir a few folks.

@Kdawg - I am currently an unemployed medical student

@JFK Purely from a physics standpoint I don't think JFK's assassination adds up, "We Landed on the Moon!" -Jim Carrey is only thing that comes to mind in regards to the moon, as for Bin Laden I hope to god we killed that ****er and I would gladly send the man who double tapped his ass a nice (but small) check!

[GibbsFactor]

I have an honest question for SkindaNFC...

What do you do for a living? (no, I'm not asking because I want to make a joke, or be critical. I'm asking because there's a point to be made here and I want to put it on terms you can relate to.)

At some point you have to make the realization that:

8-8

7-9

5-11

6-10

10-6

5-11

9-7

8-8

4-12

6-10

That's our decade. Time to get real.

To the OP, no you are not crazy. You are right. Drastic measures are needed to right this ship. Drastic.

And of course we tanked last season. Just look at the last 4 games. Even people here were screaming to put the backups in. That's called tanking. It's the smart thing to do when your organization is in so much need.

[KDawg]

@

@Kdawg - I am currently an unemployed medical student

Ok, so I'm assuming you're going to be in the medical field.

Is there any reason, while you're employed, that you'd want to throw a years worth of work down the toilet?

These players' are professionals. There is no way that they throw an entire season, and a year off their careers down the toilet for the chance to maybe get a high draft pick, maybe draft a stud prospect and maybe win a championship.

They have incentives, goals and drive and ambition. They are competitors. No competitor anywhere on this earth has ever decided that they wanted to tank an entire years' worth of work. If they have, they're not a competitor.

At some point you have to make the realization that:

8-8

7-9

5-11

6-10

10-6

5-11

9-7

8-8

4-12

6-10

That's our decade. Time to get real.

I'm confused as to why I was quoted

[texasthunder]

Thank you Kdawg.

Anybody that has played organized sports knows you play to win.

The NFL is not the family reunion touch football game where the winner gets steak and the loser gets a case of beer.

[Gibbs Hog Heaven]

Steady improvement to around .500, and a real prospect like Landry Jones.

That's my 2011 mantra to all the Luck love-in. Luck would be great, but going out with the intention of tanking the season would do more harm than good.

Hail.

[Rypien1191]

Not only are you NOT crazy, you're the first one to posit this idea too!!

[KDawg]

Thank you Kdawg.

Anybody that has played organized sports knows you play to win.

The NFL is not the family reunion touch football game where the winner gets steak and the loser gets a case of beer.

If we stink this year its because of one reason - we stink.

Sometimes I wonder if the word "tank" is thrown around to make people feel better about where we are as a franchise currently.

I think we'll be a decent team this year, at the very least matching our win total from last year. But I could see us being worse, or better. There's really no way to know at this point.

[SkindaNFC]

@ KDawg & LoveToaster - In my theory I am insinuating (not well enough) that we are putting the team into circumstances where they are unlikely to suceed. It would be impossible to get the players to collude and tank the games - there would most definitely be an internal uproar, legal fallout for damaging players careers, and tanking games is probably not allowed by the nfl (thus me saying it was a facade to still try to win). So the players wouldn't be in on it only upper management. If the players were in on it it would have leaked a long time ago.

@ LoveToaster - As for that Jaguars game, you have two teams playing for nothing... someones got to win and you can't stop the players from trying hard out of their own pride.

Now I don't think the Redskins will goto the extreme and lose all or close to all games next year esp since we have a much easier schedule, but I don't think Rex Grossman is a better QB than Donny and I don't think he will do better. I have seen enough out of Rex in a Bears uniform to know we probably won't win more than 3-7 games (7 being very optimistic). In those wins I think it will be much like Rex's Bears tenure where it was the Defense (+run game) carrying them to victories. But winning 3 games will get you a pretty high draft pick, and that makes it easier to bargain for the #1 Pick

[oldskoolskins]

To quote skindaNFC

as for Bin Laden I hope to god we killed that ****er and I would gladly send the man who double tapped his ass a nice (but small) check!

_______________________________________________________________________________

Yep, my hats off to the dude that ****ed his **** up... also I would like to congratulate those who gave him concrete boots and dumped his ass in the ocean.

On the topic of our discussion I do not think we tanked last season nor will we tank the upcoming...IMHO;)

[SkindaNFC]

At some point you have to make the realization that:

8-8

7-9

5-11

6-10

10-6

5-11

9-7

8-8

4-12

6-10

That's our decade. Time to get real.

To the OP, no you are not crazy. You are right. Drastic measures are needed to right this ship. Drastic.

And of course we tanked last season. Just look at the last 4 games. Even people here were screaming to put the backups in. That's called tanking. It's the smart thing to do when your organization is in so much need.

Exactly, we have fans have endured a decade of mediocre seasons... why not just take it a little further for one more season and come out on top for the next draft. Get a QB for the next decade in the process.

---------- Post added May-4th-2011 at 10:56 AM ----------

IF we stay the present course with John Beck, it could very well be a 2-3 Win type of season.

[wrecker]

And of course we tanked last season. Just look at the last 4 games. Even people here were screaming to put the backups in. That's called tanking. It's the smart thing to do when your organization is in so much need.

Tanking the season starts with game 1. I don't consider tanking the season when you play other or younger players to evaluate them with live bullets at the end of a season when you have already been eliminated from the playoffs.

[Gibbs Hog Heaven]

If we stink this year its because of one reason - we stink.

Sometimes I wonder if the word "tank" is thrown around to make people feel better about where we are as a franchise currently.

I think we'll be a decent team this year, at the very least matching our win total from last year. But I could see us being worse, or better. There's really no way to know at this point.

What I find incredulous, and this is not an attack on the OP, just all the Luck threads in general; is we're a mere 4 days removed from, IMHO, one of our best drafts in eons. Certainly strategy wise. We've picked up 12 talented kids to throw into the mix to have a shot at breaking the roster. Add that to a roster that was pruned as the year went on from ageing deadwood to hungry youngsters, with FA still to come; and shy of still needing a QB, which BTW we tried ubber hard for last you in Bradford without having the required ammo, and I fully believe Locker was our man this time out before TN interfered; the new regime have done most everything everyone's craved, and are doing this the right way building with youth from the ground up.

Yet still that's not acceptable and people are throwing out that we should in effect lose out next year to grab Luck. A kid who may or may not declare next year for one, and whom as good a prospect as he looks, is like any other college kid coming into the pro's. He could go either way. There's zero guarantee he'll asimilate to the pro game like he has the collegiate one.

Seriously, in a time we should be happy and optimistic about our franchise for once, folk are still looking at the downside.

Hail.

[lovetoaster]

At some point you have to make the realization that:

8-8

7-9

5-11

6-10

10-6

5-11

9-7

8-8

4-12

6-10

That's our decade. Time to get real.

To the OP, no you are not crazy. You are right. Drastic measures are needed to right this ship. Drastic.

And of course we tanked last season. Just look at the last 4 games. Even people here were screaming to put the backups in. That's called tanking. It's the smart thing to do when your organization is in so much need.

Yes, our decade has sucked. That is due to awful draft picks, awful scouting and terrible trades and free agent signings. It is no secret that we had a abysmal front office, but we have a new regime in place, and things often take a few years to turn around. As KDawg states, these guys are professionals and even if you put the backups in, I sure as hell hope that they are fighting and playing as hard as they can to win. Those guys are fighting for their jobs and livelihood. If they go out there and suck, they probably won't have a job here or anywhere else.

As for drastic measures:

The Patriots sucked from 1987-1995. What were the drastic measures they took to be the best franchise in football?

The Packers were a joke from 1973-1992. What quarterback did they tank for?

The Steelers have had a few periods of mediocre at best football since their dynasty in the 1970's. What were their panic moves?

Where were Brady and Rodgers picked? Favre led the Packers from a laughing stock to a Super Bowl contender. He was not a high draft pick but was a relatively little known backup plucked from the Falcons. Roethlisberger has not been the only piece of the puzzle for the Steelers, but he has been a big one. And he was picked 11th. They have also made some brilliant personnel decisions to help them stay at or near the top of the league.

These are undoubtedly the three best run franchises in football. What do they have in common? They have consistency in their front offices, they do not make drastic decisions and they are patient when other teams panic. It takes a little while to rebuild and do it the right way. It takes intelligence and patience from the front office. This is something that we did not have for so long, but I am hoping that this is something we have now. A year or two of great drafting and personnel decisions can turn a team around without embarassing yourself by tanking a season.

Among the playoff quarterbacks this year, two were #1 picks, but there were also two sixth round picks and a seventh rounder. Half of the QBs in the postseason were drafted later in the latter half of the first round or beyond. For every Peyton Manning that is selected at the top of the draft, there is at least one JaMarcus Russell (or Alex Smith, David Carr, Jeff George, etc.). History has taught us that there are no sure things in the draft and no definite quick fixes. What state would this franchise be in if we did tank the season to get the #1 pick and Andrew Luck turns out to be Tim Couch?

[bird_1972]

NFL coaches (Shannahan included) don't have enough job security to justify tanking a season.

I don't buy this theory at all.

---------- Post added May-4th-2011 at 11:14 AM ----------

Where were Brady and Rodgers picked? Favre led the Packers from a laughing stock to a Super Bowl contender. He was not a high draft pick but was a relatively little known backup plucked from the Falcons. Roethlisberger has not been the only piece of the puzzle for the Steelers, but he has been a big one. And he was picked 11th. They have also made some brilliant personnel decisions to help them stay at or near the top of the league.

These are undoubtedly the three best run franchises in football. What do they have in common? They have consistency in their front offices, they do not make drastic decisions and they are patient when other teams panic. It takes a little while to rebuild and do it the right way. It takes intelligence and patience from the front office. This is something that we did not have for so long, but I am hoping that this is something we have now. A year or two of great drafting and personnel decisions can turn a team around without embarassing yourself by tanking a season.

Among the playoff quarterbacks this year, two were #1 picks, but there were also two sixth round picks and a seventh rounder. Half of the QBs in the postseason were drafted later in the latter half of the first round or beyond. For every Peyton Manning that is selected at the top of the draft, there is at least one JaMarcus Russell (or Alex Smith, David Carr, Jeff George, etc.). History has taught us that there are no sure things in the draft and no definite quick fixes. What state would this franchise be in if we did tank the season to get the #1 pick and Andrew Luck turns out to be Tim Couch?

Mr. Toaster,

I couldn't have said it better myself. I really think that success starts at the top - a stable, well-staffed GM/scouting office.

All else flows from here. Where we draft a QB for the future (#1 overall vs. later in the draft) is less important than making sure that QB fits. Remember a lot of #1 overall picks are drafted that high due to hype and not necessarily because they are truly the best pick from a risk/benefit perspective.

[Brandon Lloyd Christmas]

we definitely did not tank last season, we were just that bad of a team. cant win the race without the horses, and most of our horses were lame.

[TK]

Helu there.

[#98QBKiller]

We're not tanking anything on purpose, but I can almost guarantee that our first round pick next year will be a QB. The only thing that could save that would be John Beck having some kind of miraculous turnaround and becoming a great QB. However, he will be 30 years old at the beginning of next season, I get the feeling that if he had the potential to be a franchise QB, he would've had his opportunity by now.

Going with the odds and assuming that Beck doesn't turn into a Pro-Bowler overnight, we'll end up with a Landry Jones/Matt Barkley/etc. Maybe even Andrew Luck if a team with a young QB has a bad season and wants to trade out of the top pick. We shall see.

But IMO, the Redskins probably won't be a serious contender to win the division until the 2013 season. It sucks to hear that but we're finally building a team the right way, with hard-working young players via the draft.

This season we upgraded our defense and skill positions. Next season we draft our franchise QB.

[Audible_Red40]

HELLO!!! YOU PLAY TO WIN THE GAME!!

[bird_1972]

HELLO!!! YOU PLAY TO WIN THE GAME!!

That dude has the best press conferences.

I hope he gets another HC gig just so I can see more of his antics. Classic!