Did Gannon Foil Ossenfort’s Plan?

[Harry]

Practically your entire adult life you’ve dreamed of being an NFL GM. Now you’ve finally gotten the job. Of course you’re working for a team that’s never won a Super Bowl in its more than 50 years of the game’s existence. You do have the top pick in the upcoming draft, meaning the team’s a recent big loser. Complicating that is the fact you already have a highly paid QB. Sadly he’s injured, plus his abilities are quite controversial. You reason you can’t fix this in one year. So you trade your pick to a bad team for a first round pick next year. That draft promises to offer one of the best QB prospects in recent years. Now you just need to dump the better players on your team to assure the top pick. Also you sign virtually no impact players. You’re now set with the weakest roster in the league.

The owner has fired the losing coach & GM who created this mess. So you want to hire a coach with potential, but not a wily veteran who could be hard to control. Dozens of coordinators have been elevated to head coach in recent years with the vast majority going down in flames. Nearly all of them had a better roster than yours. You just want a guy who will grow into the job. You pick a solid coordinator and wait to grab that top QB. You’ve set this up so carefully; confident no one could win with this roster.

Unfortunately for Ossenfort, Gannon wasn’t in on the plan. He came to win. I’m not certain how many he’ll win. I am confident he will win enough games to lose the top pick. The irony is that if I’m right about Ossenfort’s plan, he ironically chose a coach who defied the odds. He put together a solid staff of young, hard chargers who wouldn’t easily accept defeat. So the Cards may not get that generational QB, but they may have gotten the best young coaching staff in the league. I can’t wait to see what they can do with a quality roster. Maybe that 50+ year drought will finally end.

So is the team tanking? I think that was Ossenfort’s intention (which he can’t say without being penalized). This is the perfect example of why tanking is virtually impossible in the NFL. There’s simply too many variables. Gannon turned out to be a big one. Also players have spent years being conditioned to avoid losing. You just can’t build a roster of all useless players without creating chaos you can’t get quickly turned around. You can’t start from that roster or you might not last long enough to fix things. So, yeah they’re tanking; sort of.

 

[slanidrac16]

If your house burns down you can’t start the rebuild with the roof.
That being said Gannon and his staff has established the foundation and along with that has got two walls and some of the plumbing in place.

You can limit your roster with a look to the future but You CAN’T coach to lose. That would simply destroy the exact culture you want to build.

Kudos to Gannon and his staff.

 

[kerouac9]

You can't depend on getting the first pick in the draft. I think we're still on a trajectory to be an extremely bad (3-5 win) football team. That's even if Kyler comes back firing on all cylinders. This defense is horrendous, and there is no help in sight.

Having Jared Goff, Ben Johnson (as TE Coach) and Dan Campbell didn't prevent the Lions from going 3-13-1 in their first season.

We're 1-5. It's mystifying to be telling a "how did the tank go wrong?" story.

 

[Krangodnzr]

Practically your entire adult life you’ve dreamed of being an NFL GM. Now you’ve finally gotten the job. Of course you’re working for a team that’s never won a Super Bowl in its more than 50 years of the game’s existence. You do have the top pick in the upcoming draft, meaning the team’s a recent big loser. Complicating that is the fact you already have a highly paid QB. Sadly he’s injured, plus his abilities are quite controversial. You reason you can’t fix this in one year. So you trade your pick to a bad team for a first round pick next year. That draft promises to offer one of the best QB prospects in recent years. Now you just need to dump the better players on your team to assure the top pick. Also you sign virtually no impact players. You’re now set with the weakest roster in the league.

The owner has fired the losing coach & GM who created this mess. So you want to hire a coach with potential, but not a wily veteran who could be hard to control. Dozens of coordinators have been elevated to head coach in recent years with the vast majority going down in flames. Nearly all of them had a better roster than yours. You just want a guy who will grow into the job. You pick a solid coordinator and wait to grab that top QB. You’ve set this up so carefully; confident no one could win with this roster.

Unfortunately for Ossenfort, Gannon wasn’t in on the plan. He came to win. I’m not certain how many he’ll win. I am confident he will win enough games to lose the top pick. The irony is that if I’m right about Ossenfort’s plan, he ironically chose a coach who defied the odds. He put together a solid staff of young, hard chargers who wouldn’t easily accept defeat. So the Cards may not get that generational QB, but they may have gotten the best young coaching staff in the league. I can’t wait to see what they can do with a quality roster. Maybe that 50+ year drought will finally end.

So is the team tanking? I think that was Ossenfort’s intention (which he can’t say without being penalized). This is the perfect example of why tanking is virtually impossible in the NFL. There’s simply too many variables. Gannon turned out to be a big one. Also players have spent years being conditioned to avoid losing. You just can’t build a roster of all useless players without creating chaos you can’t get quickly turned around. You can’t start from that roster or you might not last long enough to fix things. So, yeah they’re tanking; sort of.

Nope. I think that Ossenfort looked at last year's train wreck and thought:

1) How can you even evaluate the roster based on how the year went?

2) We do have Kyler Murray who has performed at a high level, but he is injured and there are questions about him. I need to hedge my bets against whether he is the guy or not.

3) Why spend money on what will be a tough year and instead roll over some of that money for next year?

4) You win with great line play (both sides) and playmakers around the QB. Paris Johnson is a really good OT and will be a multiplier for this team in the passing game and run game.

 

[Proximo]

Practically your entire adult life you’ve dreamed of being an NFL GM. Now you’ve finally gotten the job. Of course you’re working for a team that’s never won a Super Bowl in its more than 50 years of the game’s existence. You do have the top pick in the upcoming draft, meaning the team’s a recent big loser. Complicating that is the fact you already have a highly paid QB. Sadly he’s injured, plus his abilities are quite controversial. You reason you can’t fix this in one year. So you trade your pick to a bad team for a first round pick next year. That draft promises to offer one of the best QB prospects in recent years. Now you just need to dump the better players on your team to assure the top pick. Also you sign virtually no impact players. You’re now set with the weakest roster in the league.

The owner has fired the losing coach & GM who created this mess. So you want to hire a coach with potential, but not a wily veteran who could be hard to control. Dozens of coordinators have been elevated to head coach in recent years with the vast majority going down in flames. Nearly all of them had a better roster than yours. You just want a guy who will grow into the job. You pick a solid coordinator and wait to grab that top QB. You’ve set this up so carefully; confident no one could win with this roster.

Unfortunately for Ossenfort, Gannon wasn’t in on the plan. He came to win. I’m not certain how many he’ll win. I am confident he will win enough games to lose the top pick. The irony is that if I’m right about Ossenfort’s plan, he ironically chose a coach who defied the odds. He put together a solid staff of young, hard chargers who wouldn’t easily accept defeat. So the Cards may not get that generational QB, but they may have gotten the best young coaching staff in the league. I can’t wait to see what they can do with a quality roster. Maybe that 50+ year drought will finally end.

So is the team tanking? I think that was Ossenfort’s intention (which he can’t say without being penalized). This is the perfect example of why tanking is virtually impossible in the NFL. There’s simply too many variables. Gannon turned out to be a big one. Also players have spent years being conditioned to avoid losing. You just can’t build a roster of all useless players without creating chaos you can’t get quickly turned around. You can’t start from that roster or you might not last long enough to fix things. So, yeah they’re tanking; sort of.

I do not buy your premise in the least.

I don't think any GM takes over a job with a plan to tank the next season because a QB that is highly touted might be available in the next draft.

First off many times the guy that was supposed to be the next great QB sucks in his year leading up to the draft an loses his luster. Also he could have a horrible injury.

Second the idea that no matter what you do you can assure yourself of the top pick is ridiculous. There is never just one really bad team in the NFL.

Any GM that actually thinks this way should not be a GM.

 

[cardncubfan]

Practically your entire adult life you’ve dreamed of being an NFL GM. Now you’ve finally gotten the job. Of course you’re working for a team that’s never won a Super Bowl in its more than 50 years of the game’s existence. You do have the top pick in the upcoming draft, meaning the team’s a recent big loser. Complicating that is the fact you already have a highly paid QB. Sadly he’s injured, plus his abilities are quite controversial. You reason you can’t fix this in one year. So you trade your pick to a bad team for a first round pick next year. That draft promises to offer one of the best QB prospects in recent years. Now you just need to dump the better players on your team to assure the top pick. Also you sign virtually no impact players. You’re now set with the weakest roster in the league.

The owner has fired the losing coach & GM who created this mess. So you want to hire a coach with potential, but not a wily veteran who could be hard to control. Dozens of coordinators have been elevated to head coach in recent years with the vast majority going down in flames. Nearly all of them had a better roster than yours. You just want a guy who will grow into the job. You pick a solid coordinator and wait to grab that top QB. You’ve set this up so carefully; confident no one could win with this roster.

Unfortunately for Ossenfort, Gannon wasn’t in on the plan. He came to win. I’m not certain how many he’ll win. I am confident he will win enough games to lose the top pick. The irony is that if I’m right about Ossenfort’s plan, he ironically chose a coach who defied the odds. He put together a solid staff of young, hard chargers who wouldn’t easily accept defeat. So the Cards may not get that generational QB, but they may have gotten the best young coaching staff in the league. I can’t wait to see what they can do with a quality roster. Maybe that 50+ year drought will finally end.

So is the team tanking? I think that was Ossenfort’s intention (which he can’t say without being penalized). This is the perfect example of why tanking is virtually impossible in the NFL. There’s simply too many variables. Gannon turned out to be a big one. Also players have spent years being conditioned to avoid losing. You just can’t build a roster of all useless players without creating chaos you can’t get quickly turned around. You can’t start from that roster or you might not last long enough to fix things. So, yeah they’re tanking; sort of.

I agree with the bolded part.

 

[football karma]

i dont know

i think being a good GM means that when you hire your head coach, you sell him on your plan and make sure he is on board

and if the plan is to ditch Kyler, i dont think your HC says at his intro presser: I am here because they have a franchise QB in Kyler Murray.

I do think Monti made his draft day trades to give him flexibility going forward. Monti might believe in Kyler, but if he doesnt cut it --- he has given the team options.

 

[RON_IN_OC]

No

 

[AZ Native]

I do not buy your premise in the least.

I don't think any GM takes over a job with a plan to tank the next season because a QB that is highly touted might be available in the next draft.

First off many times the guy that was supposed to be the next great QB sucks in his year leading up to the draft an loses his luster. Also he could have a horrible injury.

Second the idea that no matter what you do you can assure yourself of the top pick is ridiculous. There is never just one really bad team in the NFL.

Any GM that actually thinks this way should not be a GM.

I do not buy your premise in the least.

I don't think any GM takes over a job with a plan to tank the next season because a QB that is highly touted might be available in the next draft.

First off many times the guy that was supposed to be the next great QB sucks in his year leading up to the draft an loses his luster. Also he could have a horrible injury.

Second the idea that no matter what you do you can assure yourself of the top pick is ridiculous. There is never just one really bad team in the NFL.

Any GM that actually thinks this way should not be a GM.

It has been obvious from day one that this is a tank. Look at the moves made. Yeah, we may not get a high-end QB who won't play here anyway. We have KM. But we have the picks that favor us and a GM who can apparently make the best picks. The money will be there to improve the roster. He was not winning anything this year regardless. Don't buy in? But it is happening.

 

[daves]

Crazy thought: Was Keim deliberately tanking in 2018 - hiring Wilks & McCoy and bringing in no impact free agents, including Sam Bradford at QB? Had Rosen turned out to be a franchise QB, he could've used top picks in every round of the 2019 draft to bring in some supporting talent.

Naah... he was probably just drunk.

 

[Cardiac]

I have to believe and hope that Monti is trying to tank. His draft was excellent but the rest of the off-season was crappy.

 

[football karma]

my best guess on Monti's plan for 2023:

1. spend this year getting pro and college scouting departments to his liking

2. make no contract commitments beyond 2024

3. Determine if K1 is the guy

4. figure out the keepers on the current roster.

5. bank draft and cap capital for when his scouting is trustworthy / when he knows what his QB situation is

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

It’s hard to tank in the NFL when the short season and specifically designed league parity (ie lots of mediocre to bad teams) make results extremely variable.

Plus NFL contracts mostly aren’t guaranteed so you always have 53 guys that want a paycheck from somebody the following year.

 

[Stout]

If your house burns down you can’t start the rebuild with the roof.
That being said Gannon and his staff has established the foundation and along with that has got two walls and some of the plumbing in place.

You can limit your roster with a look to the future but You CAN’T coach to lose. That would simply destroy the exact culture you want to build.

Kudos to Gannon and his staff.

We definitely haven't rebuilt that much. We've established the foundation. That's about it thus far. With this coaching staff, it feels like a solid foundation, for sure, but we are still a long ways away.

 

[Stout]

my best guess on Monti's plan for 2023:

1. spend this year getting pro and college scouting departments to his liking

2. make no contract commitments beyond 2024

3. Determine if K1 is the guy

4. figure out the keepers on the current roster.

5. bank draft and cap capital for when his scouting is trustworthy / when he knows what his QB situation is

Hard disagree with #1. He hasn't changed the scouting departments all that much, if at all. That theory from the offseason has gone out the window.

 

[Outerlimits]

His plan does not seem foiled to me since the team only has one win currently.

The fact a couple other teams in the league are perhaps unexpectedly even worse than the Cardinals(Carolina, New England,Denver) is a bigger obstacle to the Monti tank plan than Gannon. (especially if the team gets a few wins when Kyler returns). Patriots have only scored 20 total points in the last 3 games. It is difficult to be that terrible on offense.

 

[football karma]

Hard disagree with #1. He hasn't changed the scouting departments all that much, if at all. That theory from the offseason has gone out the window.

how do you know? He hired a new head of scouting - Dave Sears

 

[Stout]

how do you know? He hired a new head of scouting - Dave Sears

And we've heard nothing of changes to the scouting staff since. How do you know he's changed the scouting staff? It was an excuse made for Monti, needing wholesale changes in that department. We definitely haven't made wholesale changes--that would have been news.

 

[Garthshort]

Now, I know what the Big Lie is all about. If you keep saying that the team is tanking or wants to tank, then people will say it must be true.

 

[slanidrac16]

We definitely haven't rebuilt that much. We've established the foundation. That's about it thus far. With this coaching staff, it feels like a solid foundation, for sure, but we are still a long ways away.

Figuratively. Of course we do.

 

[RON_IN_OC]

how do you know? He hired a new head of scouting - Dave Sears

All you have to do is look up the front office personnel between last year and this year and noticed there's only been a couple of changes. I've posted screenshots a few times.

 

[Harry]

You can't depend on getting the first pick in the draft. I think we're still on a trajectory to be an extremely bad (3-5 win) football team. That's even if Kyler comes back firing on all cylinders. This defense is horrendous, and there is no help in sight.

Having Jared Goff, Ben Johnson (as TE Coach) and Dan Campbell didn't prevent the Lions from going 3-13-1 in their first season.

We're 1-5. It's mystifying to be telling a "how did the tank go wrong?" story.

I think the vast majority of the season projections would have placed the Cards likely at 0-6 at this point. That’s doesn’t take note of the fact they had a reasonable chance to win at least a couple more of those games. I think it’s true there are more losers than expected at this point, but the Cards will soon hit the soft part of their schedule. I think at least a couple more wins are likely. This was not expected to be a competitive roster. I think more observers are shocked.

 

[kerouac9]

I think the vast majority of the season projections would have placed the Cards likely at 0-6 at this point. That’s doesn’t take note of the fact they had a reasonable chance to win at least a couple more of those games. I think it’s true there are more losers than expected at this point, but the Cards will soon hit the soft part of their schedule. I think at least a couple more wins are likely. This was not expected to be a competitive roster. I think more observers are shocked.

It’s still the NFL. Things cluster around the middle. The Giants are worse than a lot of people expected.

Despite what the Broncos showed, it’s really hard to lose 35-3 every game. Look at the bad Houston teams of the last two years and you’ll see they weren’t getting blown out. They folded like gentlemen week after week.

Just like this team is doing. Top 15 offense in the first half, worst in the NFL in the second. Speaks well to the game planning, but a weird take to put out there the week after we scored nine points.

Season long roster attrition will do its thing and the defense will get even worse.

 

[WakeForestCard]

All you have to do is look up the front office personnel between last year and this year and noticed there's only been a couple of changes. I've posted screenshots a few times.

Do you have to do a sweep of all personnel to change how a department operates?

 

[BritCard]

Gannon is part of Monti's plan. He didn't hire him thinking he was going to be a weak leader and poor HC.

Also we are 1-5. The plan seems on track.