Tanking? In the NFL, it rarely pays off

Maybe Younghoe Koo was just taking the tanking question into his own hands.

Or feet, technically.

The New York Giants kicker botched a field-goal attempt Monday night in the most spectacular way possible, thumping his toes into the turf well behind the ball and ensuring that no actual kick was made.

Three points avoided for a team that might actually prefer to lose.

I'm kidding, of course. Even if Koo was trying to miss, there are surely easier ways to do it than with an attempt that instantly entered the annals of NFL infamy and rocketed to the top end of the incoming Worst Plays of 2025 reels.

Besides, there was no way to tell if the Giants were trying to lose. They started promising rookie Jaxson Dart, evidence that they wanted to give the New England Patriots a real game. But interim coach Mike Kafka also made a couple of punt decisions that didn't seem like the calls of a guy trying to rally for a victory.

The fact these questions can be asked at all is characteristic of modern sports, where bad teams are encouraged to be even worse in hopes of landing a better draft pick. Just this weekend, the New York Jets were criticized by some of their own fans for being bad at being bad because they foolishly succeeded at winning a football game against the Atlanta Falcons. That victory gave the Jets three wins on the season - two more than Tennessee and one more than New Orleans, Las Vegas, and those very same Giants.

The argument is simple: The Jets aren't going anywhere in 2025, and they already traded talented defenders Quinnen Williams and Sauce Gardner, so they might as well stack losses and increase the value of their upcoming draft picks by finishing as low in the standings as possible.

Such tanking strategies have become so common in North American sports that they don't stir up much protest even when teams begin the season trying to lose.

The Jets, to their credit, are still trying to win games on the field. And why wouldn't they? The NFL draft is such an uncertain science that there's no guarantee improved draft position will mean much. Last season, the Giants were roundly mocked for pulling off a Week 17 upset over the Indianapolis Colts that dropped them out of pole position for the first overall pick. The Patriots were similarly excoriated for a Week 18 victory over the Buffalo Bills (who were resting their starters) that dropped them to fourth in April's draft order.

How did that work out? The Giants, drafting third, took edge rusher Abdul Carter and later traded up to select Dart near the end of the first round. Both players could end up being foundational pieces for years to come. The Patriots selected Will Campbell with the fourth pick, and the left tackle has been an important player for a team that could end up the top playoff seed in the AFC.

And the team that tanked correctly, so to speak, and ended up with the No. 1 pick? That would be the Titans, who drafted quarterback Cam Ward. It's too early to say whether he'll grow into a capable NFL starter, but the Titans already fired coach Brian Callahan and are, as mentioned, on track to pick first overall again.

Jets fans might argue that their team, which is once again in the market for a quarterback, would be best served by getting the highest possible pick, even if that means more lousy Sundays in 2025. But if any team should be familiar with the vagaries of selecting a quarterback near the top of the draft, it's the New York Jets. They took Sam Darnold third overall in 2018 and Zach Wilson second overall just three years later, eventually deciding they would rather go with a creaky Aaron Rodgers than try their luck with a college quarterback again.

Tanking is just accepted as the normal way of things in other leagues, especially the NBA, so it's easy to forget there's little evidence that it works in the NFL. A team is just as likely to find that franchise-altering player with the seventh (Josh Allen), 10th (Patrick Mahomes), or 32nd (Lamar Jackson) overall pick as it is with a top-three selection.

And yet, as the season enters its final weeks, there are bound to be fans rooting against their teams, hoping they lose out to improve that pick. There's even the grim prospect of a Tank Bowl in Week 17 with the Saints and Titans meeting in Nashville - the rare game in which fans of both teams are cheering for a loss.

To which I say, appropriately for the holiday season: Bah humbug.

That improved draft pick might not mean anything anyway. And there aren't that many games in an NFL season to begin with. Why not just root for your team to play well Sunday?

Isn't that, you know, kind of the point?

Scott Stinson is a contributing writer for theScore.