It’s come to this
This is what happens at the end of long, disappointing seasons.
Fans of such teams want a prize for the misery in terms of a top draft pick. The players and coaches of the the team, though, never even utter the “tank” word and try to win every game.
Thus, creates situations like Monday when Las Vegas Raiders coach Antonio Pierce had to a address the Raiders losing draft-pick ground the morning after the team ended a 10-game losing streak with a 19-14 win over the equally bad Jacksonville Jaguars.
The Raiders are now 3-12. They enter Sunday’s game on pace for the No. 2 overall pick. They are now slotted to pick sixth. A lot can change in the final two weeks (there are six teams with three wins over less), but it looks very unlikely the Raiders will get the No. 1 overall seed after Sunday’s win.
The fans’ angst is understandable because the Raiders need a quarterback of the future and now they may have to try to trade up to get on and tat could be very costly for a team with a lot of needs.
Still, Pierce, who is coaching to keep his job, made it very clear Monday the draft is not on his mind.
Pierce was asked if he had a message for the fans who may be upset that the win Sunday messed with the draft=pick slotting. He said “no comment.”
But he did address the elephant in the room.
“We don’t do this to lose,” Pierce said. “We don’t do this for anyone’s fantasy football team. Don’t do this for anyone’s draft projections. None of that shit matters to us. What matters is winning and that’s all we want to do.”
Pierce and his team will trey to win the next two games and then see what happens. That may frustrate some fans, but NFL coaches and players will never apologize for winning.