Winning is Better than Losing

Fans of the NFL's premier garbage franchises such as myself aren't thinking about playoffs in December, they're thinking of how winning and losing the next 3-4 games will affect their draft position. Many fans are of the position that wins that can't get a team to the playoffs are useless and only hurt the team for next year. There is SOME truth to that, but the facts oppose that point of view.

These are FACTS about the NFL:

• Players do not stop competing once they step onto the field.
• Coaches do not stop game planning for opposing teams.
• Players do not care about where the team is going to draft when they are on the field.
• Players have extrinsic motivation to play at 100% in these games: namely their future in the NFL.
• The goal of every single team is to show up on Sunday and win. 

When evaluating players and coaches the record doesn't suddenly get wiped clean once playoff hopes are eliminated. The losses count just the same when discussing whether to extend or fire a coach. They know this and never go into a game thinking to tank just so whoever replaces them next year has a higher draft pick to work with. 

To summarize: the players and coaches of both teams are still trying to win the game, therefore a win isn't any less significant when evaluating the roster of a team simply because the team is out of playoff contention. 

At the beginning of the season given the choice of an 8-8 team or a 5-11 team I'd choose the 8-8 in a heartbeat. Why? Because the team as-is is a mere two games away from playoff contention. An extra play maker or two can be the difference in those two or three games the 8-8 team lost that year. This means that they need less help from the draft to become a competitive team. 

This leads to my next point: the draft is the furthest thing from a guarantee as you can image. The 2012 NFL Draft was heralded as one of the best QB corps in recent memory. The best QB out of that draft was picked in the THIRD round. Luck and Tannehill haven't played in years, RG3 is out of the league and Brandon Weeden is an unspectacular backup. Those are your first round picks from that year. 

In 2013 some of the best players were taken at the END of the first round: DeAndre Hopkins at 27th and Xavier Rhodes at 25th. Pro Bowl tight ends Jordan Reed and Travis Kelce were both picked in the third round. 

In 2014 OBJ and Aaron Donald, both top 5 players at their position, were picked outside of the top 10 at 12th and 13th respectively. Steelers' stued linebacker Ryan Shazier was picked at 15th. Meanwhile guys like Blake Bortles, Justin Gilbert and Eric Ebron were taken above them. 

I could go on but you get my point: the draft is an inexact science and talent can be found outside of the top 5 and top 10. Sure you miss out on the stud prospects like Cam Newton, Andrew Luck and Matt Stafford. But if you're winning enough games to get to 8-8 either you have somewhat-competent play at QB or the rest of your roster is so stacked it can make up for a below average QB. In case one you can draft pieces to give your average QB some help and in case two trading up to get that stud QB is an option if the rest of your team is solid.

AFTER a team loses one of these 'meaningless'  games I'm totally with everyone else going "At least we're getting a better draft pick next year!" But until that point I still want the team to go in to ea

The bottom line is that every action taken between the months of February and August is done with the goal of winning as many football games in the upcoming year as possible. To abandon that goal because a superbowl isn't going to happen this year is simply asinine and not what a single NFL team does. At the end of the day an 8-8 team is point blank better than a 5-11 one and just because some of those wins came in December doesn't negate those at all.