Tag: Tanking

Are the Cowboys tanking? Dallas with several starters out vs. Commanders

The Cowboys receive some tough injury news ahead of Sunday vs. Commanders.

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones never gives up on a season. Despite how bleak a Dallas season looks, Jones makes the media rounds and insists everything is fine.

The current season isn’t going well for America’s Team. The Cowboys are 3-7 and have lost five in a row heading into Sunday’s NFC East battle against the upstart Washington Commanders (7-4).

Dallas has struggled all season. The defense is one of the NFL’s worst and, coincidentally enough, faces former defensive coordinator Dan Quinn on Sunday. Quinn led the Cowboys to three consecutive top-five defensive finishes before taking Washington’s head coaching position.

The Cowboys placed quarterback Dak Prescott on season-ending injured reserve last week, only two months after Prescott signed a record contract. Prescott wasn’t playing well before injuring his hamstring.

We know Prescott is out for Sunday’s game against the Commanders, but he’s not the only one. Dallas had a long injury on Friday’s final injury report.

David Moore of the Dallas Morning News reported Saturday that two of the Cowboys’ top players, guard Zack Martin and cornerback Trevon Diggs, did not make the trip to Washington. Martin was injured in Monday night’s loss to Houston and was listed as doubtful on the injury report.

Diggs was questionable.

Also, wide receiver Brandin Cooks was not activated from IR and will not play at Washington.

Incredibly, per Todd Archer of ESPN, Dallas will be without its five highest-paid players on Sunday at Washington in terms of 2024 salary cap numbers.

That leads to the question: Has Jones seen enough? One longtime Dallas writer even suggests that the Cowboys may be tanking.

Knowing the way Jones operates, that isn’t very likely. The Cowboys are dealing with several legitimate injuries. And, playing on a short week, Dallas isn’t willing to risk further injury to some of its best players with six weeks remaining in the season after Sunday.

Where the Saints are picking in the 2025 NFL draft after Week 9

The Saints continue to rise in the projected 2025 NFL draft order after Sunday’s loss to the Panthers. Here’s where they would pick if the draft started today:

Things continue to go from bad to worse for the New Orleans Saints, with the team most recently falling 23-22 to the Carolina Panthers on the road Sunday.

It makes matters even worse that the Saints were slightly favored heading into the game, with Carolina holding just one win this season before recording their second victory today.

The only silver lining for the Saints, that now ride a sobering seven-game losing streak after opening the season with a bang and two consecutive wins, is that they rank quite highly in the projected 2025 NFL draft order now.

Here’s a look at where the Saints are listed and after the Week 9 loss and the full draft order projection from Talkathon:

  • Round 1, No. 3 overall
  • Round 2, No. 34 overall
  • Round 3, No. 65 overall
  • Round 4, No. 108 overall
  • Round 5, No. 144 overall
  • Round 7, No. 252 overall (projected compensatory pick)

The Saints will try to get back on track when they face the visiting Atlanta Falcons on Sunday, who lead the NFC South. Considering how hot the Falcons are after playing their most complete game of the season and the fact they won the most recent matchup against the Saints, things don’t exactly bode well for Dennis Allen’s team.

In the event of a Falcons victory, Atlanta will sweep the series and the Saints will only continue to rise up the draft order (which may simply be in their best interest at this point in the midst of a lost season).

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Commanders received plenty of help in Week 14

The Commanders pick up a rare W by not even playing in Week 14.

Week 14 of the 2023 NFL season was an off week for the Commanders, but they still received some help.

Sitting at 4-9, losers of nine of their last 11, there are only a couple of hopes for these last few weeks of the season.

After a hard-fought game in Seattle that was lost on a walk-off field goal, the Commanders have bottomed out, losing the next three games 31-19 at home to the Giants, 45-10 at Dallas on Thanksgiving and 45-15 at home to the Dolphins.

Fans are hoping that quarterback Sam Howell can have a good last four games. But the prospects of winning any of these four games are not favorable. Possible, yes, but not probable.

Many in the fan base are frankly hoping the Commanders lose the remaining four games, thus improving their draft position for 2024.

Sunday, the Jets won their fifth game of the season, defeating the Houston Texans 30-6. The Bears also helped the Commanders by surprising the Lions 28-13. The Lions entered the game 8-4, and the Bears were 4-8.

Clearly, the Jets and Bears are not interested in tanking, and neither should a single member of the Commanders. They are being paid well as professionals and thus need to prepare and show up as professionals seeking to be the best they can be.

On Monday, the 4-8 Giants surprised the Green Bay Packers, while the 4-8 Tennessee Titans shocked the Miami Dolphins in a massive upset.

What a Week 14 for Washington.

 

A look at the current 2024 NFL draft order

There’s a path for Washington to climb even higher in the NFL draft order.

The Washington Commanders received plenty of help in Week 14. Ahead of the weekend’s NFL action, we posted a Week 14 rooting guide for the Commanders. Of course, rooting guides are often used regarding a team and its playoff chances.

Not Washington. Its rooting guide consisted of the 2024 NFL draft. The Commanders held the No. 4 overall pick coming into the weekend but had played one more game than other four-win teams. The Bears, Giants, Titans and Jets all sat directly behind Washington.

All four teams won.

So, courtesy of Tankathon, here’s a look at the current top 10 picks in the 2024 NFL draft.

Tankathon

It’s amazing, considering where Washington sat weeks ago. Many fans felt the Commanders were in for another six or seven-win season, meaning a pick somewhere in the mid-teens.

Now, the game has changed. And there is a path for Washington to climb as high as No. 2. The Patriots have a difficult remaining schedule, but the 5-8 Jets are on their schedule. New England looked rejuvenated in last week’s upset win over Pittsburgh.

The Cardinals, like Washington, were off in Week 14. Arizona won in Week 13 and has looked competitive throughout the season under new head coach Jonathan Gannon.

Arizona plays San Francisco and Philadelphia but has two winnable games to finish the season against Seattle and Chicago.

The Commanders are expected to move on from head coach Ron Rivera. If that occurs as expected, Washington could be one of the more attractive GM and coach openings in what should be a busy 2024 carousel.

Of course, the Commanders must lose out to move up in the draft order, and judging by their recent play, that shouldn’t be a problem.

Post-Brady, the Bucs are doing what everyone’s asked the Saints to do

Post-Tom Brady, the Buccaneers are doing what everyone has said the Saints should have done post-Drew Brees. We’ll see how torching and tanking works out for them:

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are in a situation similar to the New Orleans Saints’, but they’re going about things with an entirely different strategy. Instead of creatively moving money around to remain competitive and try to win football games, the Buccaneers are slashing and burning their way through their roster. The post-Tom Brady landscape is going to look much more barren in Tampa Bay than the post-Drew Brees picture has been in New Orleans.

It’s what everyone from talking heads on ESPN to analytically minded nerds on podcasts have said the Saints should have done once Brees hung it up. Tampa Bay has cut longtime starting left tackle Donovan Smith as well as veteran tight end Cameron Brate and fan-favorite running back Leonard Fournette as they look to reach salary cap compliance. More departures are coming.

Most important is how they’ve handled their contract with Brady. When Brees retired with the Saints, he was processed as a post-June 1 cut to spread out the remaining salary cap charges between the 2021 and 2022 fiscal years, costing the Saints a little over $11 million in each season.

That isn’t what the Buccaneers are doing with Brady. He’s still on their books with a $35 million cap hit while the team sits in the red by more than $49 million. And they have shown little inclination for stretching that out into 2024. If the Buccaneers wanted to, they could process Brady’s retirement as a post-June 1 release just like New Orleans did, which would cost them about $10.7 million in dead money for 2023 and put the remaining $24.3 million on the books for 2024. Instead of doing that, though, they’re taking their medicine right away in hopes of a healthier salary cap outlook this time next year.

We’ll see how torching the roster and tanking the season works out for them. Former second-round draft pick Kyle Trask is the only Buccaneers quarterback under contract for 2023, though it wouldn’t be a shock if they sign a mediocre free agent like Drew Lock, Baker Mayfield or Gardner Minshew to compete with him for the starting job. If the end result is Tampa Bay clinching a top-five draft pick in 2024 and giving fans hope for the future with a top quarterback prospect in their sights, team management will be left feeling happy with themselves. It’s a strategy that worked out so well with their former No. 1 pick Jameis Winston, after all.

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Celtics Lab mailbag overflow: Checking in on Derrick White, Luka Samanic, and what teams should blow it up

We picked a trio of non-Timelord questions relevant to a Celtics shooting guard’s marksmanship, a Maine Celtics affiliate player’s prospects, and an inquiry into what teams around the NBA ought to consider Bricking for Vic ™.

This week, the CLNS Media “Celtics Lab” podcast had an especially heavy mailbag, and to get to all of your excellent Boston Celtics and NBA questions, we decided to take a handful to an article format to get to more than the hosts Cameron Tabatabaie, Alex Goldberg, and Justin Quinn had time to cover on air given the superabundance of quality submissions we received, many of them focused on the return of Boston big man Robert Williams III.

We picked a trio of non-Timelord questions relevant to a Celtics shooting guard’s marksmanship, a Maine Celtics affiliate player’s prospects, and an inquiry into what teams around the NBA ought to consider Bricking for Vic ™.

So, without further ado, let’s jump into your questions — and our answers.

–oOo–

Josh Hart: We’re not trying to get Victor… whatever his name is

Sean Highkin: Josh Hart: “We’re 0-0. I don’t think we’re panicking. We’re not trying to get Victor … whatever his name is.” Source: Twitter @highkin What’s the buzz on Twitter? Sean Highkin @ highkin Josh Hart: “We’re 0-0. I don’t think we’re …

What’s the buzz on Twitter?

Sean Highkin @highkin
Josh Hart: “We’re 0-0. I don’t think we’re panicking. We’re not trying to get Victor … whatever his name is.” – 4:35 PM
Sean Highkin @highkin
Josh Hart has a new look. pic.twitter.com/2JOMTWy4RX – 4:33 PM

Casey Holdahl @CHold
Chauncey giving @Damian Lillard the night off. @Keon Johnson will start in his place along with @Anfernee Simons, @Josh Hart, @Jerami Grant and @Jusuf Nurkic. – 8:32 PM
Josh Hart @joshhart
This fantasy match about to be close @Wale – 8:49 PM

More on this storyline

Sam Presti responds to anti-tankers calling the Thunder the black eye of the NBA

“Not everybody should be a publisher at the end of the day”

Oklahoma City Thunder general manager Sam Presti met with the media for over two hours to conduct his exit interview on Monday. One of the topics discussed is the Thunder becoming the face of tanking and how some media critics labeled the team as the “black eye of the league.” The Thunder finished the season with a 24-58 record and the fourth-best lottery odds; the team received significant criticism over the last few weeks of the season due to the handling of rotation minutes and the amount of players who sat out games.

Presti fired back and said that those who say such things are nothing but media pundits who are not fully informed about the rebuilding process and how to win as a small-market team in the current landscape in the NBA. Which is a strong argument to make, the Thunder will never be a free agency destination, so the only way the team can return to contention is through drafting young players with the chance of developing into stars under team control for several seasons. Here’s Presti’s full answer to the question as the Thunder continue to face scrutiny in some parts of the media for their shameless tanking efforts:

“Well, the first thing I would say we have a rebuilding team now. Other people can — they like to name things because they have certain opinions that they are trying to — it’s performance art. That’s what social media has become is performance art. We’re not going to get caught up in that.

Not everybody should be a publisher at the end of the day. No offense, but — and that’s not directed to anybody in here specifically.

But I do think there’s a difference between being opinionated and being informed. I’d rather be informed than opinionated. The information is we’ve gone — we went 12 years and we put everything we had into that. Like everything. We taxed the team, no pun intended, to the point where, like, financially the third smallest market in the NBA shouldn’t be asked to go to that level in order to compete. I think that’s one of the prevailing issues that the league is going to have to solve for, especially with the level of new ownership that’s entered the equation and where the trending is financially in terms of just the disparity in the payrolls.

But yeah, we’re going to set our own pace. We’re not going to watch the clock, like I said earlier.

Rebuilding in the West, go look at history. Go study how many drafts it takes. Find your team, find the one that you think is successful and then work back from there. How many years does it take to get to one playoff appearance in the West? How many years does it take to get to two, back to back? That’s a lot different.

If you’re watching the clock all the time, you’re going to make it — you’re actually going to end up making it longer. Like I said, to try to fix things quickly takes a very long time. We’re entering our second draft.

In context, it’s like, I don’t even know what to say to that. Do you know what I mean? I understand the question, but for us we’re like, okay, we’re — that doesn’t change our point of view on what we’re trying to accomplish.”

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OKC Thunder news: John Hollinger lists Lindy Waters III as a reason to watch the Thunder

. @TheAthletic listed Lindy Waters III as a reason to watch the Oklahoma City Thunder this late in the season.

The Athletic’s John Hollinger listed Oklahoma City Thunder two-way player Lindy Waters III as one of his seven players who have made watching tanking teams tolerable. Waters III was signed on a two-way deal on Feb. 11 and had averaged eight points while shooting 36.3 percent from three on nearly six attempts in 25 games this season. With his two-way deal including next season, Waters III’s late-season play and ability to shoot from outside off the catch basically guarantees he will start the season with the Thunder.

“Something has clicked for him since graduating in 2020, especially as a shooter. Waters played 16 games for the Thunder’s G League team and shot the lights out, hitting 48.8 percent from 3, making 18 of his 19 free throws, and also converging enough 2s to land a spectacular 76.7 True Shooting mark. The 6-foot-6 guard was always a halfway decent athlete, so this shooting shift almost immediately marked him as a potential NBA player.

Since signing with the Thunder, he’s kept shooting it. Waters is launching 15.3 triples per 100 possessions, with more than three-quarters of his shots coming from beyond the arc. He’s made 36.3 percent while also grading out as a plus rebounder and a decent enough defender. If he can either score an occasional 2-point basket or lift his 3-point mark closer to 40 percent, the Thunder have a rotation sniper.”

Waters III’s development has been one of the more pleasant surprises for the Thunder this late into the season. If he can develop other areas in his game and not rely solely on his shooting, then there’s a legit shot at the Oklahoma State product sticking to the NBA and carving out a nice career. In fact, Waters III has been so good that Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault has limited his minutes recently due to the fear of him helping the team win games.

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