Quote:This presumes the "tankers" definitely want Bridgewater.

 

My arguments haven't specifically been for Bridgewater (though I like him as a QB and as a top pick).  My arguments have always been for improved access to the talent pool.

 

The thing is, it isn't important for the "tankers" to get the pick right, but the team.

 

If Caldwell thinks Clowney is the best player, I want Caldwell to have access to him.  If he thinks it's Bridgewater, I want Caldwell to have access to him.  The only way to guarantee access to either of these players (or anyone else) is through superior drafting position.

 

What will you say to the tankers if the Jaguars don't get the top pick, and the top pick succeeds wildly with the other team and our lesser pick busts?

 

What will you say to the tankers if the Jaguars end up with the top pick, they pick someone other than Bridgewater and that pick is a great player?  Would the "tankers" be wrong then?

 

Who the pick happens to be is irrelevant.  By intentionally losing to gain "access" is dishonest and undermines every honorable concept of sportsmanship and competition.  Once one team is perceived to benefit from tanking then others will jump in the fray.  Pretty soon the whole league assumes the perception of being rigged.  If fans and other teams don't believe that a team is playing to the best of their ability, then win-loss records are nothing but scripts.  I liken tanking to people faking injury or illness to draw disability.  How many moral and ethical, not to mention legal, lines have to be crossed to gain "access" to that money?  

 

A philosophy of tanking is fundamentally dishonest and insidiously destructive.

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