Quinn And Branch Getting Cut?

[jlfin]

When I think of tanking, I think of the Dallas Cowboys when Jimmy Johnson arrived. He intentionally tore the old team apart and sold off the parts (Herschel Walker Trade) to get a slew of draft picks. He tanked for one year to get a QB (Troy Aikman), and used other high draft picks to get cornerstone players at key positions like RB (Emmet Smith) and WR (Michael Irvin) and built a team that had a lot of strong contributors around the same age, that ended up fueling a dynasty. And had Jimmy Johnson continued to coach that team, it likely would have won a couple more Super Bowls as well.

Then when Jimmy Johnson came to Miami, he tried to do what Don Shula had been doing, tweak the team and turn a team with some good talent into a good team. And he failed. It wasn't that Johnson wasn't a good coach. It wasn't that he had bad players. It's that his system didn't give with the players we had. We had developed an elite passing offense, and Johnson's whole scheme revolved around playing stout defense and establishing a dominant smashmouth running game to support it. He tried tweaking what we had, but they couldn't fill those roles. He tried building without top draft picks, but it didn't yield the same level of players. Johnson did not have superior draft picks to collect superior players, and he was no longer superior.

The goal of tanking is to improve the talent on your roster and ensure that it is precisely the type of talent your schemes need to succeed. An offense with the right QB yields more points, more wins, and better Super Bowl chances. A defense with a shutdown CB and dominant pass rushers gets the defense off the field more, it causes more takeaways, it gives the offense the ball in positions to score more. Coaching is super-important, but tanking is all about enabling those coaches with better talent. I hate losing … but after years of mediocrity from tweaking, I'm ready to take a chance on greatness. Don Shula was the best … he continually succeeded at winning despite inferior talent. But that has not been duplicable since he retired. Let's get behind trying to dramatically improve the talent pool, and give Coach Flores & Co. a chance to build their team with their players.

Tom Landry drafted Michael Irvin. He was drafted the year before JJ took over the team

 

[Digital]

Tom Landry drafted Michael Irvin. He was drafted the year before JJ took over the team

Good point. I had forgotten that Irvin was drafted before JJ got there, my bad.

Here's who JJ did draft in Dallas with all those draft picks. I'm not going to list them all, but look at the hits he had with the high picks he gained through tanking and trading.

1989 (1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 5, 5, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12) - Extra picks: 2, 3, 5, 5
1. Troy Aikman HoF
2. Steve Wisniewski
2. Daryl Johnston
3. Mark Stepnoski
3. Rhondy Weston
4. Tony Tolbert

1990
1. Emmitt Smith HoF
2. Alexander Wright
3. Jimmie Jones

1991 (1, 1, 1, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12) - Extra picks: 1, 1, 3, 4, 4, 4)
1. Russell Maryland
1. Alvin Harper
1. Kelvin Pritchett
2. Dixon Edwards
3. Godfrey Myles
3. James Richards
3. Erik Williams

1992 (1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 5, 5, 6, 9, 9, 10, 11, 12) - Extra picks: 1, 2, 3, 5, 9)
1. Kevin Smith
1. Robert Jones
2. Jimmy Smith
2. Darren Woodson
3. Clayton Holmes
3. James Brown

So he tanked for high picks in every round, and over the next 3 years gained 3 extra 1st rounders, 2 extra 2nd rounders, 3 extra 3rd rounders, 3 extra 4th rounders, 3 extra 5th rounders and an extra 9th. He was known to be an excellent trader, and this bears that out. But the math is simple … the more higher picks you get, the more talent your team can accumulate, and the more good chances you get to build your team with guys who fit your system their entire career. JJ benefitted from a roster full of talent and he put them in the best position to win. He gained that talent through excellent drafting and having a lot more resources to draft high draft picks.

Yes, the Herschel Walker trade was his main source of those resources … but without those resources he wouldn't have guys like Alvin Harper, Darren Woodson, and Erik Williams. We're trying to draft well … but I'm sure you would agree that it helps to have more high picks, or for your picks to be higher in the round … even if you ultimately trade down for more picks in a lower round.