The Cleveland Browns are one of a handful of teams that have a great shot at landing the top overall pick in next year’s draft, but veteran offensive lineman Joe Thomas finds it laughable that fans think an NFL team would lose games on purpose.
Many believe USC quarterback Sam Darnold is a can’t-miss NFL prospect — one that is so good rebuilding teams would tank for him. Thomas said that is never a good idea in football.
“It’s always fun for fans and the media to have that narrative because it gives you guys something to talk about,” the Pro Bowler told Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News. “And for fans, I’m sure they enjoy the optimism of looking toward the future if they don’t think that the present is bright. But it seems like every year the player that you want to suck for ends up dropping and not being the top pick … or what you expected.”
Tanking is certainly a real thing in the NBA, but it’s far easier to predict which college or high school basketball players will make an impact at the next level. For every Peyton Manning, there are dozens of Ryan Leafs and JaMarcus Russells. There really aren’t any LeBron James-type situations in the NFL, and Thomas alluded to that.
“If you look historically at the draft at quarterbacks in the Top 10, about half of them flame out very quickly,” he added. “So, there’s no guarantee in the NFL that if you’ve got the No. 1 pick or you’ve got a Top 5 pick, that you’re going to be able to draft a franchise quarterback. So, I’m not sure that the appropriate strategy is just to tank for a quarterback.”
It’s not the appropriate strategy, and it’s one that could also cost someone like Todd Bowles his job. That’s why the New York Jets are 2-2 and are not intentionally trying to lose games. It simply doesn’t work like that.
As for the Browns, they already like what they’ve seen out of rookie quarterback DeShone Kizer, whom they drafted in the second round of this year’s draft. Would that stop them from taking Darnold? No, but to think they’re intentionally losing games is a stretch.
