This has been the lost season. As the Carolina Panthers languish at the bottom of everyone’s power rankings (and the gap between 31 and 32 doesn’t even seem to be close), their games becoming a tune-up for the other team to pick up an easy win and move on without a second thought, for the fans, the countdown to the final game is on.
But amongst all of the disappointment of the season, there is the lone possibility of a bright spot. But it doesn’t come without a few hiccups.
For all teams who have gone through the kind of season as Carolina is having this year, there comes the opportunity to secure the top spot in the next season’s draft. To hold the chance to pick whomever they please, and most likely bring in a future superstar. Right now, the Panthers are “leading” the race for the No. 1 pick – a game ahead of the 2-10 Bengals, Lions and Bills. Outside of Cincinnati, who has revived their “Bungles” persona from years past, the Lions and Bills have been playing relatively well and look as if they could pick up another win or two before the year is out. So the only real competition Carolina has at this point is the Bengals and their likely 2-14 finish.
The Panthers play Atlanta twice and Pittsburgh once in the final four weeks of the season, with a visit from the (almost) equally-bad Cardinals in between. So for three of the four contests, it doesn’t seem to be much of a chance that Carolina could bring home a victory, no matter how hard they play. But the Dec. 19 game against Arizona, which will be the final home game of the season and of head coach John Fox’s career with the team, seems to be up the in the air. Arizona has been awful this year, and has a quarterback mess on their hands that is all-too familiar to the Panthers, so a victory here isn’t too much of a reach. My feeling is that there is a best-case scenario of Carolina finishing 2-14, and most likely tying Cincinnati for the worst record in the league, with the tiebreaker going to the team whose opponents compiled a worse record getting preference for the top pick (i.e. if you lost to lesser teams, you need the help more).
However, this is where the quandary comes in. Should a team “stop playing” and give themselves a more likely chance to lose, with the hopes of getting that No. 1 pick?
It’s a Catch-22 situation for Carolina – or rather, a Catch-1. The difference between the 1st and 2nd picks in the draft could end up being massive – but does it outweigh the players’ want to play hard each game and possibly (although unlikely) pull out a victory that would drop them off the top of the draft board?
It’s a proposition that seemingly goes against everything in a player’s DNA, to turn off the competiveness of a professional football game, essentially “giving up”. But this has to be balanced against the potential of vastly improving the team in the coming years. But where is the line drawn? Where does it go from just being on the lesser team and getting beat by a better opponent and turn into “they’ve already started looking toward next year”?
It’s a line I don’t know how to draw. And it’s a question that I honestly don’t have an answer to.
