Oakland Raiders: 3 Reasons why they should tank 2018 season
By Joel W. Cade
2. Tanking brings high draft picks
Tanking can bring a team a lot of money in the salary cap. The other advantage to tanking is that it results in high draft picks. Those high draft picks are needed to acquire top tier talent for the team.
Again, let’s look at the Browns for an example. The Browns have picked in the top 10 of the draft for the past three seasons. They traded out of the top ten in 2016 with the famous Carson Wentz trade. But in 2017 and 2018 they had the first overall pick in the draft. Because of draft day trades, they have had at least two first-round picks from 2016-18.
Although technically, Emmanuel Ogbah was a second-round pick, he was the 32nd pick in the draft due to “Deflategate”. In 2017, they had three first-round picks.
The result was the acquisition of Corey Coleman, Emmanuel Ogbah, Myles Garrett, Jabrill Peppers, David Njoku, Baker Mayfield and Denzel Ward. Only Coleman no longer remains with the team. Mayfield and Ward have been NFL Rookie of the Week this year.
If the Raiders tank, they can begin the process of reshaping the roster with high quality draft picks. By simply rebuilding in the win now mode, they will be a middle of the road team. They will end up with middle of the road picks. Middle of the road picks means they will miss out on the elite talent needed to build a dynamic team.
Of course, the trick will be draft elite talent with elite picks. Some the picks in the Wentz trade ended up being people that did not work out for the Browns. All the draft picks in the world mean nothing if the Raiders fail to get the picks right.