No need to be prickly. But it's the a fact that the list of "franchise saving" first rounders is a very spotty and uncertain one. A lot of times the best you can do with your top pick is bring in a guy who'll put butts in seats for a few years. Unless you have a fundamentally sound plan to put a roster around those top guys they're not gonna get you anywhere.
I do understand that tanking for the trade and draft capital can be a worthwhile use of a lost year. if you're just taking over a team it can be your best option if you can sell it to the fans. But at the end of the day it's a lot more useful to have a good eye for the lunchpail guys. If you can pick a good supporting cast to put around the premium talent, it's a fact that you simply need less premium talent. it's the lack of ability to find these fundamentally sound rank and file guys to build around their centerpiece talent, not the raw talent on the team, that's holding back the New York Jets IMHO. Tanking does not solve this problem.
Also -- perhaps my perception of first round quarterbacks in particular is skewed. I've seen too many JaMarcus Russel, RGIII, Brady Quinn types who show up, flare breifly if at all, then go away. It's actually probably more important to find a quarterback that's a good fit for what the rest of your team is trying to do and the culture you're trying to build, than go after collegiate superstars with all the talent ever. But of course to do that you need to be able to build a culture in your team. And I honestly think that a team that's tanking will have a lot of trouble building a respectful, fundamentally sound culture at the same time.
So it's like I see why the Jets are selling the fans on tanking and getting ready to take the plunge. But I'm not sure they aren't solving the wrong prublem.
