Tanking doesn’t work in the NFL and it won’t work for the Minnesota Vikings.
Following their impressive 2017 season, the Minnesota Vikings thought that the addition of Kirk Cousins would be the missing piece to get them over the hump and into the Super Bowl in 2018.
Fast forward to now and all the Vikings have earned is a single playoff win and a 0.527 winning percentage in the regular season in the 39 games Cousins has started under center for them.
Sitting with a 1-5 record after six games this year, it seems like Minnesota’s current starting quarterback isn’t going to be the one to carry the franchise to their first-ever Super Bowl win. So what should the Vikings do next to try and reach the top of that mountain?
No reason for the Minnesota Vikings to tank this season
Thanks to their poor start, Minnesota’s shot at making this year’s Super Bowl are as low as they could possibly be. Because of this and the fact that there is expected to be a number of talented quarterback prospects available in the 2021 NFL Draft, some would like to see the Vikings tank for the rest of the season in an attempt to get a top-five draft pick next year.
Sure, losing the majority of their remaining games would likely give Minnesota one of the top selections in the 2021 draft. But there is absolutely no guarantee that the player the Vikings would select with that draft pick is going to be the one to lead them to the promised land either.
Since 2000, Eli Manning is the only quarterback of the 25 (excluding this year’s two picks) who have been drafted in the top five to lead his team to a Super Bowl win as a starter.
So four percent of the passers who have been top-five draft picks during the last two decades have led their team to a championship. Despite this, fans and analysts still think it’s a good idea for teams in the NFL to tank.
People will point to the Kansas City Chiefs drafting Patrick Mahomes, the Houston Texans selecting Deshaun Watson, or the Baltimore Ravens picking Lamar Jackson as reasons why their favorite team should tank to get a top draft selection.
Well, each of these three quarterbacks was drafted with the No. 10 pick or later, and neither of the three teams who selected them finished their previous season with a losing record.
So this theory that Minnesota will win a championship in the near future if they just try and lose as many games as they can this year to get a top draft pick and select a quarterback in 2021 isn’t one that has really worked in the NFL.
The Vikings are better off just going out and attempting to win each of their remaining games for the rest of the season as it’s been proven time and time again that a team doesn’t need to have a top-five pick to land a franchise quarterback in the draft.