I take it that no one actively says the word ‘tank’ but what does a scenario actually look like from owner down to players? Is everyone in on it? Does the GM talk to the owner, sell them on the next potential big draft prospect? Followed by reassuring the head coach that they will be safe? Followed by the coordinators and then strategically putting good players on IR for ‘their safety’? Putting the players in difficult situations and essentially using any remaining games as evaluations for future seasons?
Players that would have otherwise played might play less or not at all due to some lingering injuries.
Certain players may get more playing time than they otherwise could have for either the experience (they are a rookie, for example) or to get a better evaluation by the coaches (is this guy in our future plans).
Even in these scenarios, major changes aren’t likely since established players might have performance escalators in their contracts.
The other thing is that the team may not replace clearly low talent players with someone available on the market that can give them a better chance of winning.
Finally, play calling could be different to adjust for all of the above. While the team will still play to win, you may notice either really conservative calls (why get our key players killed?) or really aggressive calls (we have nothing to lose).
What I was thinking as well. No one actively 'tanks. but you might instead ‘evaluate’ certain players or ‘try new plays’ at the expense of winning. Especially if you are ensured another year or tied at the hip with a GM.
Good point bringing up game plan changes.
A tanking team could move to a gameplan of just running the clock out regardless of context, since their goal is to end the game as fast as possible and not to win the game. We saw the Giants do this in 2021 vs Bears. The Giants didn’t attempt to win that game at any point, they just wanted to grind the clock out as fast as possible.