Sweezo wrote:Is this season worse than last year? We've won more games but the effort has been iffy and every week is just another beating waiting to happen. We simply aren't Playing competitive football, and as the possible rep for the NFC West in the playoffs we are set to take another beating on a national stage and netting a middling draft pick in the process.
I think we need a draft pick thread now. I mean seriously, I think I'm squarely in the I-want-us-to-lose-next-weekend camp. Things are a little up in the air now as far as draft order is concerned, but the as far as I can tell the difference between winning and losing is a minimum of 8 slots down in the draft. If we win, we in all likelihood draft 21st.
If we lose (this gets a little hairy working through all the possible tie-breakers right now), and just eye-balling it (by record only at the moment), we could be anywhere between the 7th and 13th pick. My off-the-cuff guess is that if we lose, we draft somewhere between the 8th pick and the 11th pick. That's a pretty big difference in draft slottage, and pretty important in the longer term scheme of things, IMO.
The difference in the potential quality of players we *could* get in the 1st and 2nd rounds of next spring's draft *could* be somewhat substantially better if we lose next week than if we win. It could be the difference between walking away with a franchise QB and a real quality DLman, OLman, DB, or the like in those first two rounds, instead of a bit-more-of-a-gamble on than surer-thing in our 1st round pick, and the same could be said for our 2nd round pick on a equally relative basis.
You're right. We've looked like shyt in our losses. Real shyt. We're rebuilding. There's no doubt about that. I'm wondering how many of your even "averagely" informed fans are starting to think this way?
Of course, it all boils down to what we make of those higher draft picks should we lose next week. That's the key. But I do like what they did in the 1st round last year with Okung and Thomas, and Tate and Thurmond might yet turn out well for us, though that still remains to be seen.
I don't know...if we win next week, and then get the snot kicked out of us at home in the first round of the playoffs...would it really have been worth the win next week? I know you can make the "positive-team-culture" argument, but does that really apply to a 7-9 playoff team?
This is just one of those real strange and rare what's-really-best-for-the-team situations, methinks.
