Should the NFL have a lottery system for the draft?

[Observer]

Lottery is the best solution. It would stop penalizing teams for doing well and rewarding teams that fail. It would also protect talents like Calvin Johnson from having their valuable years wasted on crap teams like the lions. Imagine if University placement was such that the reward for doing well in high school was automatic disqualification from Harvard and MIT. I don't think anyone would think that that would be fair.

 

[RayClay]

They should throw all 32 picks in a bowl and let the luck decide.

Mwahahahahahahahahahahahha! Maybe the Pats get the #1. Of course they trade it for 13 second rounders lol.

 

[TommyD4207]

I don't know why people insist on that. I'd love to hear a good argument but, if they were tanking why did everyone get canned and why didn't Painter start the whole season?

1) Because Polian was already in his 70s, and Irsay was sick of having no say in the franchise (he was the Colts GM too, once upon a time). He was getting blown out of there anyway. Ditching Manning and tanking just made it easier.

2) They brought in Kerry Collins so that they could tell a plausible enough lie to the fanbase that they were trying to win. Irsay was terrified that he'd be looking at 8,000 people sitting in that stadium on Sundays.

Trust me, no one was surprised that they lost their jobs in that offseason. If anything, I think they may have known beforehand, once they found out Manning's injury status.

 

[Ivan]

Non, but the order should be reversed. No more rewarding teams for sucking. Super Bowl champ picks first etc. the best teams already have to deal with the cap ramifications of being good, that's enough parity for me.

I know some disagree with this but why should teams be rewarded for sucking? And to take that a little further I would argue it's the reason the NFL actually sucks right now, the best prospects go to the teams whose primary qualification is sucking at all levels of management. I would much have a league where the teams with the best management continue to rise and the other franchises have to figure out how to get better instead of waiting for the others to drop back down. Imo he salary cap forces some level of parity and rewarding teams with draft picks makes more sense than punishing success and rewarding suck.

 

[Palm Beach Pats Fan]

I think that the Colts started off 0-6, or so, perfectly naturally. Not by design. At that point Irsay knew the season was lost, that he was going to fire everyone, and he wanted to start off with Luck. They were atop the waiver wire list, with cap room,and repeatedly signed nobody. They stick with Painter a ridiculously long time, and their fans HOWLED when he was replaced, fearing that they might win too much.

 

[Deus Irae]

The only way any league should have a lottery is if all teams are included, and there is very little, to no, weighting of the odds. In the era of free agency, a weighted lottery system is even more of an abomination than a straight draft, which essentially rewards incompetence.

 

[OhExaulted1]

The sports draft system is unconstitutional in the first place and flies in the face of a free market society.

I know they declare and sign on for the process, but I'm just sayin....

 

[RelocatedPatFan]

I wouldn't trust the this NFL* to do it fairly.

 

[FCB02062]

I'd be pro some sort of lottery and I like the idea of giving the SB champ the #1 pick in second round - kind of a reward. It'll never happen though in today's NFL where the push is for every team to finish between 10-6 & 6-10

 

[chasa]

I know some disagree with this but why should teams be rewarded for sucking? And to take that a little further I would argue it's the reason the NFL actually sucks right now, the best prospects go to the teams whose primary qualification is sucking at all levels of management. I would much have a league where the teams with the best management continue to rise and the other franchises have to figure out how to get better instead of waiting for the others to drop back down. Imo he salary cap forces some level of parity and rewarding teams with draft picks makes more sense than punishing success and rewarding suck.

That goes completely opposite of the idea of parity.

The best teams would get the best players, which would compound the issue. in a lot of cases, the only way a team is going to get better in the front office, is if the team owner has the team taken away.

The redskins, cowboys, rams, raiders, jets, fins, etc etc. their owners continue to screw things up. The two best teams in the league right now, bengals and pats are the two longest tenured coaches. the only way you get that is with a patient owner.

Maybe have a GM Head coach draft?

 

[Ivan]

I agree that there should be a lottery, since openly tanking your entire season should never guarantee you the #1 pick.

That said, I don't see any steam gathering behind this. It's not even a hypothetical; the Colts openly tanked a season a couple years back and nobody cared, because integrity is a buzzword that only matters when you're mad at the Patriots for winning too much.

Players don't tank because it's their tape in the end, front offices tank by making sure they don't make moves to improve the worst situations. Kyle Orton was there for the taking and the Colts deliberately passed because they knew he would take them out of SUCK FOR LUCK range. It wasn't a coincidence that Bill Pollian was scouting Luck in early September. The Colts didn't just lose for Luck they branded it and wore it loud and proud, they were SUCKING FOR LUCK!

Last I recall tanking a game is the worst crime against the integrity of the game that there is, the Colts tanked a season and all of the results from it by doing so. It doesn't get any worse in sports.

 

[Ivan]

That goes completely opposite of the idea of parity.

The best teams would get the best players, which would compound the issue. in a lot of cases, the only way a team is going to get better in the front office, is if the team owner has the team taken away.

The redskins, cowboys, rams, raiders, jets, fins, etc etc. their owners continue to screw things up. The two best teams in the league right now, bengals and pats are the two longest tenured coaches. the only way you get that is with a patient owner.

Maybe have a GM Head coach draft?

I will take great over parity. In other words f.ck parity, if they want to get better then do it. Billionaire idiots have a system that keeps them from accountability and rewards then for sucking @ss. The cap levels the playing field, if that's not enough then it's time for them to go and someone who can do a better job to take over.

To sum my argument up in two words I give you

Irsay

Woody




I could go on but don't see the need.

 

[primetime]

To be fair, it is heavily weighted against the teams at the low end, but I do agree that it needs to be reined in.

The NHL does it right, where any team can win the top pick (albeit with weighted chances) but then from there it's slotted by record, so the worst team can never finish with lower than the 2nd overall pick.

Even so, I don't think it makes sense for football. There's been maybe one example of throwing a season by means of Curtis Painter. There just aren't that many games in football, and teams can remain in the playoff picture. And the value of a single player just isn't that great, all in all, contra basketball.

 

[sportnik]

If the NFL went to a lottery with this league office, the Jets would be assured every franchise QB. It would just be another mechanism for Goodell to use to favor the Jets and screw the Pats.

 

[PP2]

If the NFL went to a lottery with this league office, the Jets would be assured every franchise QB. It would just be another mechanism for Goodell to use to favor the Jets and screw the Pats.

You know it'll be Mike Kensil cranking the pinball machine.

 

[Rob0729]

I think the NBA lottery is crap. I guess you need it because teams purposely tank it to try to get a higher draft pick in the NBA far more than the NFL.

I like the way the NFL does their system. The worst teams should have the highest picks. The thing is many of the bad teams can't draft well even with top 5 picks every year.

 

[Pats2000]

Why bother, the NFL will just find new and creative ways to take high draft picks away when we get high in the first round. ..

 

[Observer]

I just cannot support a system where the players have no choice of where they want to play, but are instead just placed in a line and handed out like cattle. They should be free agents from the get-go and the salary cap should determine "parity".

 

[JoeSixPat]

Polian and the entire coaching staff got canned. If they were tanking why were they on board with it if it was going to get them fired unless Irsay blantly ****ed them over?

Look - Luck was as close to a sure thing as you get among NFL QBs and despite this season Luck has proven that.

Polian knew that. At the age of 68 he wasn't exactly planning on starting over at GM

I'd be willing to bet Polian got a PRETTY nice severance package from the multi-billionaire Irsay for securing a franchise QB and profits and success for the next 15 years. Polian seemed pretty well set up as an ESPN commentator pretty quickly too

Jim Caldwell's career wasn't going to end either - because other GMs either 1.) Didn't buy the "Suck for Luck" allegation but didn't expect anyone could win without Peyton that season, or 2.) Those who believed he was litterally "taking one for the team" wouldn't think he was as bad as his record and owners would be impressed with his loyalty to do what's best for an organization

Sure enough Caldwell DID get another head coaching job

I saw enough questionable plays that season to be convinced the Colts were tanking just enough games to keep them on top of the Luck sweepstakes - and aside from the "integrity of the game" it was a wise strategic move given an injury to Peyton Manning that looked to be potentially career ending

As far as any of the other posturing by Irsay - yeah, I'm sure he was shocked the team did poorly without Peyton and was lamenting owning the #1 pick for a franchise QB that will ensure the ego-maniacal owner continues to have a successful team

 

[Ivan]

The top prize goes to the team that finishes last.

Can't get any more american than that now can we?