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Opposite Reality...

Nobody ever suggested that the coaches will lose games on purpose, in fact it's a common misconception of 'tanking' that players and coaches ever want to lose games (of course they don't), and part of the reason why 'tanking' is not as common as a lot of people think it is. Front office....probably don't sit watching games hoping they lose or rooting for the opposition, but will be party to a plan not to go all out for immediate victory in order to make success more likely in the long term (stockpiling picks, ditching ****ty contracts, etc.). This would be justifiable as it's 'for the greater good'.

The concept of 'tanking' is very misunderstood and the term is used to mean a lot of things, but the important thing is that you don't have to lose for the process we're going through to work. It would make it easier, but this isn't about putting the ****tiest team possible out there just to go 0-16 and guarantee the #1 pick. No player of coach is going to buy into that, and no FO is going to risk causing such a massive schism between them and the players/coaches by trying to force that. If we ditch expensive contracts, trade for picks and still finish 6-10 and then 8-8 it doesn't mean the process has failed, just that we may have to trade a bit more to get to where we want to in the draft for a QB.

I believe that the model for what Stephen Ross wants to do is the Browns (of the last three years, not the ****show before that) - reduce the cap spend and stockpile picks to get to the position that they are in now, which compared to the constant cap struggles and patching up we've been doing looks pretty appealing.

You just described it yourself- there’s no such thing as tanking. What you described is rebuilding.

Dumping contracts, stockpiling picks, etc; this is setting up success for the future. That is not tanking.

They are going to play the best players on the roster come August.

Now, if you tell me they start every third stringer on the team, I’ll concede, wave the white flag, kneel before Zod.
 
People forget that the Minnesota Vikings traded their entire draft to Dallas for Herschel Walker in 1989.

And Johnson had come from the University of Miami so he actually knew who was good in college football at the time.

Johnson proved he was mortal and mediocre as a Dolphin coach.

Without tons and tons of talent around him he was meh.

He gets credit for getting is talented teams to win....that’s it.

The Dolphins will strip the fat - Parker Amandola Branch Tannehill Alonzo Quinn maybe Wake retires - Jones likely goes so does McDonald - then we can use the money to go young and build depth...




I gotta admit, my mindset has changed. Before I wanted to build a good team and improve it to become great. I was hoping each coach was the answer man who could make that last step. But reality has set in for me. We were uniquely lucky to have had Don Shula. No other coach will become great like him, and I'm probably not going to see a dominant Dolphins team unless we take a step backwards before we take a step forward. Like how Jimmy Johnson rebooted the Dallas Cowboys, tanking and fire-sale'ing off his talent for a complete and utter tear down and build up. It worked like a charm, and Jimmy Johnson made a great team … a dynasty if you will.

In Miami he tried to patchwork things … and he couldn't do it. He tried to duplicate that dominant team built around one of the most dominant OL's of all time (Larry Allen, Erik Williams, Nate Newton, etc.) dominating run lanes for HoF'er Emmitt Smith. But those guys aren't as easy to find, and without those guys, the team just couldn't pull it off in Miami. Johnson was a good coach … but I had been used to Don Shula, who could take any team and make it look great. Almost no coaches can do that, and finding another one is probably not going to happen.

So, I'm looking to up our odds of building a Super Bowl contending team … and I'm embracing the Jimmy Johnson method of tanking and building a team from the wealth of resources that tanking brings a team . I will "trust the process" as the Philadelphia 76'ers love to say. So having another aberration success year like Sparano had doesn't interest me. And if we screw up tanking like Sparano did that one year, I'll go apoplectic. The QB's are there in the 2020 draft. Lots of teams will be tanking for the 2021 draft so the one lucky team can get Trevor Lawrence. Our window is to tank in 2019 to get an elite QB prospect for 2020. If we miss that window, we're probably looking at another decade of mediocrity … and I'm just not interested in that.

Tank. Get an elite QB prospect. Build around him. Build a team capable of competing for a Super Bowl. That's what I want, that's what I'm hoping we do, and at the moment according to Ross, Grier, etc., that is the plan. Now … go out and execute the plan fellas.
 
People forget that the Minnesota Vikings traded their entire draft to Dallas for Herschel Walker in 1989.

And Johnson had come from the University of Miami so he actually knew who was good in college football at the time.

Johnson proved he was mortal and mediocre as a Dolphin coach.

Without tons and tons of talent around him he was meh.

He gets credit for getting is talented teams to win....that’s it.

The Dolphins will strip the fat - Parker Amandola Branch Tannehill Alonzo Quinn maybe Wake retires - Jones likely goes so does McDonald - then we can use the money to go young and build depth...
Jimmy Johnson did always have an eye for talent though. Great teams/dynasties tend to be fueled by a few great drafts. The Steel Curtain Pitsburgh Steelers, the Bill Walsh 49'ers, and yes, Jimmy Johnson's Cowboys. It was uncanny how well they hit on their draft picks.
 
All this talk about tanking is really just media and fan chatter. It is a viral fantasy idea/strategy that does not align with the players or coaches on the field. You cannot force the team to lose. It simply doesn't work like that. Whatever the roster looks like in September, remember these are players who are essentially doing their jobs and trying to do their absolute best to win. It is in their best interest.

Answer me this, who goes to work to tank?
 
All this talk about tanking is really just media and fan chatter. It is a viral fantasy idea/strategy that does not align with the players or coaches on the field. You cannot force the team to lose. It simply doesn't work like that. Whatever the roster looks like in September, remember these are players who are essentially doing their jobs and trying to do their absolute best to win. It is in their best interest.

Answer me this, who goes to work to tank?

Careful. You might get trampled by a battalion of them. That's how I feel when I read the word.

What an unnatural idea: let's lose on purpose.

I just chalk it up to the tank posters meaning to say rebuild but the word tank just sounds better... I guess?
 
Let me begin by stating it is a slow time of year. Winter outside, NBA and NHL both yet to start playoffs. Spring training is 1-2 weeks away, March Madness is still 4-6 weeks away and our government is in perpetual stalemate.

What if our new Head Coach and coaching staff actually look competent and do well? The players have pride and do not want to lose. What if our draft rebuilds the lines and they become competent. We run the ball and stop the run. Falk, or OS or whoever becomes a decent caretaker. We have Howard and Fitz in the backfield. Our special teams are good. We could win more than our owner/GM want.

We lose out on our QB in 2020. How can this be prevented?

I don't think this is a concern, and I'll tell you why:

If this regime turns out to be THAT GOOD, I am not concerned about taking future first round picks away from them.
 
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