CMC says there is no need for a rebuilding year.

[Jeremy Igo]

"We have the guys to win. We've put ourselves in position to win two weeks in a row. We've shown that we can win, we just have to do it," McCaffrey said. "You can't beat yourselves and we've got to play good team football. We've shown that we can do that, so there's no need to be a rebuilding year. With some kinks here and there that we have to iron out, I think it's time to start play winning football. We know we can, so like I said, now it's just time to go out there and do it."

 

from SI.

 

I get it. This is the mentality any pro athlete must have if he want to succeed 

[hepcat]

What he says and the reality of the situation are two different things.

It’s painfully obvious this is a rebuilding year. 

But it’s the right mindset every player should have.

[Jon Snow]

It's good they believe in themselves.  It's much harder to actually produce above your abilities when everyone else around you is struggling as well.  The problem lies in the abilities of those around him and those problems cannot be fixed in one off-season.  But keep pounding!

[pantherj]

If you have the heart of a champion your don't say "the roster is not good enough" or something like that. CMC said that right thing. He expects to win now, and he believes in his teammates.

 

 

 

 

 

(The roster is not good enough)

[Wolfcop]

On offense, maybe good enough to be .500; on defense...no

[CmC2k]

We have the talent to play good football and not be embarrassed every weekend and we'll win some games this year but consistent winning football is still a bit far down the road. 

[kungfoodude]

I hope that mentality is in the entire team. I think that it has to be close because we have overcome some significant odds to be as competitive as we have been. 

The real challenge will be if we end up as a 0-2 win team around game 8, 9, etc. Can we still keep that morale up? I hope so.

[Moo Daeng]

Tell an nfl player like him, Cam, Luke, Olsen, or Davis to tank for a draft pick.

[kungfoodude]

1 minute ago, Moo Daeng said:

Tell an nfl player like him, Cam, Luke, Olsen, or Davis to tank for a draft pick.

This is precisely why I always say tanking is not a real on field thing. You rarely make it to professional football as a player or coach if you aren't competitive and want to win. Tanking is a front office thing when you completely gut a roster. Miami did it. Jacksonville did it. We are doing it. 

That doesn't mean these guys are going to lay down and give up. If they did, why in the world would anyone want them on their team?

[Jacabee]

13 minutes ago, kungfoodude said:

This is precisely why I always say tanking is not a real on field thing. You rarely make it to professional football as a player or coach if you aren't competitive and want to win. Tanking is a front office thing when you completely gut a roster. Miami did it. Jacksonville did it. We are doing it. 

That doesn't mean these guys are going to lay down and give up. If they did, why in the world would anyone want them on their team?

Been thinking about the merits of this a lot lately, especially every time I visit this board. The notion of tanking rattles every competitive bone in my body. On the field, it’s fundamentally antagonistic to establishing a winning culture.  When you reach the highest levels of competition where raw talent roughly evens out, the difference in success is often those who want it more and work harder. For football, see Jerry Rice. 
 

However, as you address, there is arguably a distinction between those playing the game and those putting the people in position to play the game. Particularly with the rise of analytics based thinking (and employment) across professional sports, the notion of a strategic based “tank” has become more accepted, especially in NBA and the MLB. Those embracing the notion retort that it doesn’t undermine the competitive spirit at all; the front office is still trying to win, just trying to win the long game.

I’m skeptical that trying to balance this philosophical conflict between players/coaches and the front office can be successful in the NFL. In the NBA, it can work because individual players can have such a dramatic impact on the makeup of the team and generally the contract structures and culture are more conducive to quickly building teams. In the mlb, it can work because of the sheer volume of prospects (and trade capital) coupled with the unreliability of any prospect playing out make it viable. 
 

But the NFL and football in general cannot be isolated to individual players like those other sports. QB is the closest thing to it, but even then it requires a functioning scheme, receivers that can separate, running backs that can complement and a line that allows you to perform. Because the NFL has such high turnover and short careers, it’s hard to see all the necessary moving parts coming together with new players without an established competitive culture. The disjunct in philosophy between front office and players amidst a “rebuild” just seems self defeating in this light. In that vein, a hire like Rhule and his contract makes a lot of sense. 

[NAS]

Yeah I like it. You don’t know want players to accept losing otherwise they will get stuck in that mode like Browns

[Captain Obvious]

[kungfoodude]

11 minutes ago, NAS said:

Yeah I like it. You don’t know want players to accept losing otherwise they will get stuck in that mode like Browns

And this is exactly what some of us have been saying. That's why I constantly harp on how competitive we have been in the face of the adversity and how I want to see that kind of mentality hold throughout what is likely to be a very tough season for any competitor. 

We all saw what it looks like when a coaching staff loses a team and they just start largely laying down. That was literally the second half of 2019 for us. It was awful.

[Jon Snow]

2 minutes ago, kungfoodude said:

And this is exactly what some of us have been saying. That's why I constantly harp on how competitive we have been in the face of the adversity and how I want to see that kind of mentality hold throughout what is likely to be a very tough season for any competitor. 

We all saw what it looks like when a coaching staff loses a team and they just start largely laying down. That was literally the second half of 2019 for us. It was awful.

While I am encouraged that they haven't given up in the first 2 games so far it is only 2 games.  It's hard to endure heartbreaking loses without it getting to you no matter how strong you think you are.  Let's see where this teams breaking point ends up being.