Tanking happens in the NFL. And the Panthers are now clearly doing it.
They’ll deny it. They have to. The first rule of Tank Club is you do not talk about Tank Club. More specifically, through any and all subtle or obvious efforts to embrace the suck in order to enhance draft status, the team needs to claim it’s not doing that which it plainly is. And the league office will look the other way as long as no one says the magic word.
Owner David Tepper recently used the right words when asked about striking the balance between winning games now and drafting high later.
“There’s no way that every day you can’t go in with a winning attitude, and there’s no other way to be,” Tepper said during the October 10 press conference regarding the firing of coach Matt Rhule. “You have to try to win, all the time. You have to try to win for the players. You have to try to win for the fans. And, yes, I understand what it is about draft picks and getting quarterbacks and stuff like that, and I understand the importance of quarterbacks in this league. But you have to try to win always.”
So why trade one of your best players with 11 games left to try to win, if you’re trying “to win, all the time”?
The truth, even if it never will be uttered by Tepper or anyone employed by him, is that they’re sacrificing 2022 competitiveness for the pieces needed to make moves in 2023. Since Monday, they’ve stockpiled six draft picks by trading away two players. While the deal that sent receiver Robbie Anderson to Arizona falls more into the category of “addition by subtraction,” the deal that shipped running back Christian McCaffrey to the 49ers counts as subtraction by subtraction, with the hopes of adding better players later.
Or maybe a better coach. The assets they’re already added, along with more that could arrive before the November 1 trade deadline, could enhance their ability to de facto trade for a coach, whether it’s Sean Payton or maybe even Mike Tomlin. Remember, David Tepper was a limited partner in Pittsburgh before buying the Panthers. And Tepper knows the value of a great coach. Why not at least make the call to Art Rooney II to see whether the Steelers, Tomlin, or both would be interested in a change, after 16 years together? Maybe Tepper will have his eyes on some other established coach who would be interested in a fresh start, especially if the Panthers can make their situation more attractive by securing the first overall pick in the draft by officially trying to win -- and unofficially failing -- week after week after week?
The point is this. The Panthers are tanking. The Panthers will never say they’re tanking. The league office will never accuse them of tanking unless and until they do. Or, perhaps more accurately, if they do it in a way that can’t later be described with a semi-straight face as a joke.
That’s the formula for successfully sinking in the standings and simultaneously scaling the draft order. Don’t say it. Just do it.
The Panthers obviously are doing it. And the fans won’t be complaining about it if the Panthers draft a franchise quarterback, hire (or trade for) a coach with a Super Bowl pedigree, and start winning games when they’re actually trying to.
