One of the elephants in the room of sports is “tanking”. Which is when an organization may put their players in position to lose. Which has to suck for the players who want to put their best foot forward, each and every game.

Tanking is not supposed to happen but it makes total sense to do so in certain positions. As a fan, there are times where you want your team to lose. For example, I am a fan of the New Orleans Saints.

They were the talk of the league to start the season after winning their first two games over the Carolina Panthers and Dallas Cowboys by a combined 62 points. They scored 47 and 44 points, respectively in those first two games.

Then Reality Hit

The Saints looked poised to be the surprise team of the 2024 season and then the bottom fell out as they lost seven games in a row. This included getting blown out by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Denver Broncos, and Los Angeles Chargers. The final straw for management was a 23-22 loss to the Panthers.

The head coach, Dennis Allen, was fired after that loss, and the Saints found themselves at 2-7. Now, as a fan, it was disappointing but I accepted that it was time for New Orleans to bottom out.

Life In The Middle

The Saints have been stuck as a middle of the pack football team for quite some time now after a run of sustained success. From 2017-2020, the team had at least 11 wins every year.

Future hall of fame quarterback, Drew Brees retired at the end of the 2020 season, and New Orleans has not been able to find that sustained success without him. From 2021-2023, they finished with seven or nine wins in each season.

They are not good enough to make the playoffs while not being bad enough to qualify for a top draft pick. Its a tough spot to be in, because as a fan, you want the team you root for to be competitive. If you are between seven and nine wins each year, are you truly competitive or are you just good enough to never be great?

That’s why I was ready for the Saints to continue their losing ways and end the season with a record of 2-15 or 3-14 but they had different plans. The black and gold have looked like a completely different team since they fired Dennis Allen and appointed Darren Rizzi as head coach.

False Hope?

New Orleans has won two games in a row over the Atlanta Falcons and Cleveland Browns. They are now 4-7 and their division that is still winnable.

The Atlanta Falcons are now in first place in the NFC South with a record of 6-5 after losing two straight games. They have three games of their remaining six, against teams who are currently in the playoffs. The “Dirty Birds” have games against the Los Angeles Chargers, Minnesota Vikings, and Washington Commanders.

The Saints only have two matchups left against teams who are currently in the playoffs, the Commanders and the Green Bay Packers. There is a very real possibility that New Orleans can make up the two game deficit and catch the Falcons for the division lead.

Risk vs Reward

Now, is it in the best interest of the franchise to continue to play well and finish with a record of 10-7, 9-8, 8-9, or 7-10? It would be exciting to be in the playoff race and have a home playoff game. The scary part is they may lose the playoff game and find themselves in the same position again, where they are destined to be stuck in the middle.

On the other hand if the Saints went on another losing streak and ended the season with a record of 4-13, they would be in position to get a top five draft pick and perhaps draft the quarterback of the future along with other positions of need in later rounds.

Being bad now, does not guarantee that the team will be good later. Look at teams like the New York Jets who haven’t made the playoffs since 2010 and have only won more than eight wins once since then.

The Las Vegas Raiders bottomed out 20 years ago and have not won a playoff game since. So, a turnaround is far from guaranteed.

Of course, the risk of being bad and not becoming a good team afterwards is there but there are success stories as well. Look at the Washington Commanders, who finished last season with a record of 4-13. Which put them in position to draft, quarterback Jayden Daniels.

They have a real shot of making the playoffs and becoming a destination that top free agents will want to play for going forward.

Another similar situation is the Houston Texans. The Texans finished the 2022 season with a record of 3-13-1, which put them in position to draft , quarterback C.J. Stroud. Stroud led the Texans to the playoffs last season and Houston currently leads the AFC South and looks poised to make a deep playoff run.

One player does not fix all of the issues of a football team but having a great young quarterback, on his rookie contract, makes it a lot easier to fix the issues around him. The Saints could be in position to draft that quarterback and fix the issues around him within a few years.

This could lead to New Orleans being a contender year after year instead of being a team lost in the wilderness of seven to nine wins.

Does it make me a bad fan to root for my team to lose? Hoping that the losing now, leads to consistent winning long term?