For those who haven't, I submit to you all to read Jimmy Johnson's book 'Turning The Thing Around'. It will provide you with really good insight on his thoughts during his first godawful year (1-15 record) in 1989 as coach of the Cowboys. They had some awful games as well. Their first game of the season was 28-0...with two more scoreless losses to follow.
Most points they allowed that year were 36. Lost five games when their opponent scored 20 or less. They had their QB, and they played him. Three of their five starting offensive linemen were starters two years later when they were 11-5.
Point being that while they were tanking they also were building. They weren't discarding good young players who could be cornerstones of a winning program just to become worse. They made one big strategic trade and then made a lot of draft day trades to build around what they already had.
We have a way to go to be just that bad.