What would you rather have?

Tell McPhee these wins are meaningless.
Tell Freeman these wins are meaningless.
Tell Trevatham these wins are meaningless.
Tell Young these wins are meaningless.
Tell Porter these wins are meaningless.
Tell Jeffery these wins are meaningless.
Tell Miller these wins are meaningless.

Tell Howard not to run so hard because these wins are meaningless.
Tell Meredith not to improve as a receiver because these wins are meaningless.
Tell the young secondary to stop trying to improve technique be wise these wins are meaningless.

Do you not understand that every week could be the last game for these players? Can I be there when you tell McPhee that he doesn't need to try so hard because you want to draft another pass rusher to take his place?

The reason so many of us push back so hard against some of these ideas is that they are presented as 'fact' or ' the only way forward' when truthfully they aren't. Many of them are simply dumb to put it bluntly or based on media narratives created to drive link clicks or hot takes. 

Anyone is free to post whatever they want, just expect and accept a little push back. 

oh hell, I have no issue whatsoever with people not agreeing with my viewpoint. Not even a little. As I said in my post, what I don't like is people putting words in my mouth or making ridiculous reaches on something said to support an argument. i never said to try to lose. I never said not to put forth full effort. What I said was that the goal is to make a better team and one that can be competitive for many super bowls. If you are not going to be in the playoffs, then that year is a no go for purposes of meeting those goals. No matter  how you slice it that is the way it is. If you are not going to make the playoffs, you have no chance to be in the SB. However, the focus can never be taken off of winning the SB and making the team better. When you are in the position of not being able to do that this year, what do you do? You still try to get better for the long haul. You don't give up the goal. The things that can make you better are better coaches and better players.

That does not always mean different coaches and players (although it might). It means better. That means the people in place can also get better. So the people that you want to play long term.... play them. You need them better for next year. Note that nowhere in there did I say that you don't play as hard as you can or to win. You just play to meet the long term goal that is no longer in reach for this year. And yes, for me, part of getting better is a high draft pick. So while I want all players to play as hard as they can, I still hope for as many losses as possible when the season is gone. I want the higher pick.

For some, the thing is that they say still win as many as you can and it's the GMs job to find good players whenever they pick. I get it. Teams do it all the time. I just want access to those earlier picks whenever possible. I will take every edge I can. If you are not going to win this year, then try to win next year.

Losing gets you a higher draft pick. A higher draft pick makes you better. I don't want to make it seem like I am backing away from my original point. It's just that TRYING to lose or not giving full effort never come into the equation for me. You try to win and I only hope for losses when the team is out of it. I just keep my eye on the prize and whatever is going to get us there given the circumstances at the time is what I want. SO yes, I switch from wanting to win to wanting to lose depending on the circumstances. But I NEVER deviate from full effort and trying to make the team better.

Unfortunately this wanting to lose thing should only have been a one or two year thing. Once the team is competitive and has a chance to be in the playoffs, a higher draft pick and losing should never enter into the conversation. It seems that every year we end up pretty much out of the playoffs early and so this keeps coming up every year. I wish they would finally just get over the hump and at least get us to the point where we are competitive. Until that point though, as soon as we are out of contention, I want as high a pick as we can get. But that's me. Not everyone is going to agree with that. And that's ok by me.