Making the decision to ride with your practice squad QB instead of investing in a vet QB. They know we’re out of playoff contention so why burn cash or valuable picks on a temporary solution?

I don’t think the word Tank comes up at all. I think the team leadership discusses what are the priorities for this year given the teams performance. Im assuming this happens a couple times a season with every team. For the giants im assuming

1. They want to see what they have with young players, evaluating vets doesn’t bring much in the way of value

2. Ensure that the vets that are part of the teams multi year plan fully heal from any injuries. No reason to rush back from injuries and risk re injury if there isn’t a chance at playoffs

3. Let the coaches try out some different schemes that they would like to use in the future. Try things that maybe off script

4. Talk to the owner about the comparison of last season and this, what can we do to prevent as dramatic a swing from season to season, consistent growth will be critical as the team enters year 3

5. Focus on team evaluation from players to coaches to FO, do you have the right people to be the org you want to be

6. Spend time with your vets and understand their goals. The way schoen handled LW is a path to ensuring future FAs want to be part of your org

7. Evaluate the fuck out of the draft

Based on historical examples, tanking as we know it starts with ownership talking to the GM and head coach about “seeing what we have in our young players, building for the future over the present,” or other obvious key words.

Of course we have examples of owners and GMs flat out telling their coaches to not win any games (Browns, Colts, Dolphins) but this is frowned upon by the NFL and teams risk punishment if caught.

That being said you can see some teams embrace the tank when they do roster moves like cutting all their QBs right before week one, cutting all their good players for seemingly no reason, or trading away players for small returns just to get them off the team. An owner would be firing their GM if those roster decisions were made in a vacuum, which is why everyone needs to embrace the tank at some level.

There isn’t one. No player is going to actively tank. The concept doesn’t exist - unless you’re the Eagles.

1. Players that would have otherwise played might play less or not at all due to some lingering injuries.

2. 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).

3. Even in these scenarios, major changes aren’t likely since established players might have performance escalators in their contracts.

4. 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.

5. 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).