The 2025 NFL season hasn’t even kicked off yet, but apparently, some front offices are already thinking two steps ahead—and not in a good way.
According to ESPN’s Mike Greenberg, a number of league insiders are floating a questionable strategy: tanking the season in hopes of landing Arch Manning in the 2026 NFL Draft.
Mike Greenberg Called Out NFL Teams’ Tanking Plans for Arch Manning
Speaking on his show, Greeny didn’t hold back. He called out the mindset outright, saying multiple people mentioned the possibility to him during this year’s draft in Green Bay. Their thinking? Bottom out now, grab the next Manning heir later.
“I just did the NFL Draft… the number of people who said to me coming out of Green Bay, ‘Well, we’ll just suck this year and get Arch Manning’… Shut up! Win games for crying out loud…”
Arch Manning hasn’t played a full season as a starter at Texas, but his name still carries generational weight. As the nephew of Peyton and Eli, the hype machine has followed him since high school, and the NFL seems more than ready to cash in. Even without major college production yet, the assumption is Manning will be one of the most talked-about QB prospects of the decade.
That’s all well and good—until teams start putting future potential over present wins. And that’s where Greeny draws the line. “It should never benefit a team to lose any game that is being played,” he said.
Losing on Purpose? Not the Move
This isn’t the first time “tanking” has been discussed in pro football circles. From the Dolphins during the Tua Tagovailoa sweepstakes to the “Suck for Luck” campaign ahead of the 2012 draft, teams have flirted with losing for lottery-type positioning. But in a sport where careers are short and locker rooms are built on belief, the idea of punting an entire year is hard to justify.
Players play to win. Coaches coach to keep jobs. No one in that building wants to waste a season chasing a maybe.
Let’s also be real: Arch Manning isn’t a lock to go No. 1. This will be his first year as a starter at Texas, and he hasn’t had the kind of “Heisman moment” or dominant stretch that past top picks showed in college. Betting a whole franchise’s future on a quarterback prospect with no real resume is risky, especially when it might cost your team culture in the process.
And Greeny isn’t the only one calling out the weird energy. Fans, analysts, and even some players have voiced frustration over the idea of mailing it in for a draft pick who hasn’t played meaningful snaps yet.
Winning still matters. And teams that forget that chasing a name might find themselves right back at the bottom even after draft day.
