In the NFL, you literally need a sucky season or 2 to get competitive draft compensation and free up cap room. That's what the 49ers have routinely done to build these teams. It's like a roller coaster, or a trampoline.
The Russ trade performed the function of a sucky season for us in terms of the cap and capital influx. They hit on the drafts for the most part.
And, yeah. If you're tanking, you're not only sending the wrong message, you're crapping on the integrity of the game. It doesn't work.
No self-respecting coach or organization would abide by wasting years of their players extremely finite careers, as well as the repute of their organzation, for a draft pick that has a coin flips chance of hitting at all. It's an affront to the sport.
The Chiefs got Mahomes off a BUNCH of winning years. Reid didn't tank for what he's got. The Bills only traded up 5 spots for Allen (7 from 12) and didn't have to tank for him.
The 49ers being awful for 5 straight seasons is not even close to the reason for their current success, and they weren't tanking. They just sucked. The only prize that being terrible got them was Bosa. He worth 5 years of eating putrid ass? Hardly.
The key to success in this league is building a winning organizational culture, maximizing existing talent, and drafting well. This is why there are laughingstocks that mostly stay laughingstocks until they *change the culture*. Seattle drafting poorly for 8 or 9 years was not a function of their capital, it was mostly a failure of their player evaluations.
You let losing through that door willingly, you're going to need one hell of an exterminator to get it out, and you're probably not gonna get it from your gamble on paltry draft rewards. Ask the Jets. Or the Browns. Or the Lions. Or the Falcons. Or the Jaguars. Or the Rams. Did the draft picks turn those teams around willy nilly, or did they simply have leaders that installed winning cultures when said leaders were there?
Remember when the Colts tanked for the best quarterback draft prospect in a generation? Worked out for them, didnt it? Now he's retired, and they never really challenged for a championship because they never had the right leadership. Now, the legend that Luck replaced doesn't even associate with the franchise, and he won them a Super Bowl. The literal best opportunity to tank in the history of the NFL didn't work.
Play to win. It is the bare minimum requirement for this league.
Also, this isn't directed angrily at you, Jerhawk. I just don't want to invite that opportunity to become the next Bears, or Jets, or Cardinals in. It's the most terrifying proposition to me, and it also just stands against why I love this league compared to say, NBA.