Oakland Raiders: 3 Reasons why they should tank 2018 season

Rebuilding vs. Tanking

Before moving any further, I need to clarify some terms. Tanking is different from rebuilding. Both tanking and rebuilding are different from quitting. For clarity’s sake let’s get this all straight.

Quitting is what players on a team do when they no longer want to play for their head coach. If Raiders fans want to see what quitting looks like, simply re-watch last Sunday’s game in London. Those Raiders’ players quit. If anyone wants to know what quitting sounds like. I present exhibit A:

That is a player who has quit. He is not invested in the success of the team. He is interested in his own career. He has put self before team. The blame for a team quitting lies squarely on the head coach. Jon Gruden lost his team with the Khalil Mack trade and now they have quit on him.

Rebuilding is something front offices do. When a front office decides that the construction of the roster no longer fits what the team is trying to accomplish, they rebuild. Rebuilding generally looks like turning over pieces of the roster for draft picks. They use those draft picks to construct a different roster better suited to the front office’s vision of the team.

A team usually will try to rebuild and win simultaneously. This seems to be the Raider’s plan entering the season. The plan seems to have been to sign Khalil Mack. They signed veteran players to put a winning product on the field while simultaneously trying to turn over the roster.

Instead, they could not get a deal done with Mack. When Mack was traded, Gruden lost the locker room. Without Mack, an already bad defense has been exposed for being old and slow. On top of that, the defense is expensive with middle class veterans on top-tier contracts.

There are significant deficiencies on the offense. Both tackle positions are bad. Yes, both are rookies. But rebuilding is tough. Derek Carr does not look anywhere near the same quarterback he was before the leg injury. The Raiders have utterly failed to win now while turning over the roster.

Tanking is what a front office does when it seeks to reconstruct every aspect of the team. The front office decides to burn the roster down to league minimum veteran contracts and rookies. The point is to lose enough games to get high draft picks.

But what is the point of tanking? What advantages are there for teams who tank?