Tasser’s Take: Luck sweepstakes make losing teams interesting

Quick, what is the one thing that every team in the NFL covets? If you said a Super Bowl… Quick, what is the one thing that every team in the NFL covets? If you said a Super Bowl championship, then you would be right.

Then what is the second most coveted thing in the NFL? That would be a franchise quarterback.

For every Peyton Manning, Ben Roethlisberger and Aaron Rodgers, there are five Ryan Leafs, Tim Couches and Matt Leinarts. It takes a special gift to be able to translate college success into the pros, and teams will shell out big bucks for players who they think can be that special someone — even before they have ever played a snap.

That being said, Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck is being touted as one of the best quarterback prospects ever — possessing great leadership qualities, a strong yet accurate arm and great pocket presence. He undoubtedly would have been the No. 1 pick in last year’s draft, had he entered (Cam Newton thanks him for not entering, as do all Cam Newton and Steve Smith fantasy football owners). Thanks to Luck’s once-in-a-lifetime ability, this year’s draft is aptly being called the “Andrew Luck Sweepstakes,” giving bad teams an incentive to play worse — much like the Steelers did in 1969 for the right to draft Terry Bradshaw, as claimed by the Chicago Bears.

As it stands now, there are three teams in the league that haven’t won a game (Indianapolis, Miami and St. Louis) and another six that have only one win (Philadelphia, Minnesota, Carolina, Arizona, Jacksonville and Denver). It’s still early, but these teams are the top “contenders” for the title of worst team in the league and the right to roll the dice on a franchise quarterback.

Let’s play a little game to predict where Luck might end up.

For the first round of cuts, lets eliminate St. Louis, Carolina and Jacksonville. The Rams have their own No. 1 pick in Sam Bradford, Rookie of the Year and “Franchise savior” — although he isn’t doing them a lot of good so far this year — and they aren’t in any haste to draft another.

The Panthers just drafted Newton first overall, and he has already developed a rapport with Smith. The two are becoming one of the best quarterback-receiver tandems in the league. And the Jags just drafted Blaine Gabbert, an athletic quarterback with tons of potential who they seemingly threw into the fire way too early — looks like a potential career-ruiner to me.

The next three to go are Philadelphia, Arizona and Denver. The Eagles recently gave Michael Vick a butt-load of money and their team is clearly too talented to finish last over the course of a full season, so count them out. Arizona has Kevin Kolb, who has been pushed aside once, but that’s not why I’m eliminating them. The Cardinals play in the NFC West, possibly the worst division in the league, so I just don’t see them finishing with the worst record. And the Broncos just recently decided to go with Tim Tebow as their starting quarterback. While his numbers will probably remain suspect, the team’s results cannot possibly get any worse than they were under his predecessor, Kyle Orton.

That leaves our finalists: Indianapolis, Miami and Minnesota.

Minnesota’s four losses have come by an average of under five points, so the Vikings very easily could turn themselves around. They also drafted Christian Ponder in the first round last year, but the team has a history of strange personnel decisions. So while it wouldn’t surprise me, they finish as second runner-up.

The Colts have been right there several times this year, but without Peyton Manning, they are clearly not a good team. Indianapolis owner Jim Irsay has even said publicly that he would draft Luck if given the chance and allow him to sit for several years behind Manning, like the Packers with Rodgers and Brett Favre. On top of that, they have a tough schedule remaining, but I see the Colts’ older players as having too much pride to finish last. I also don’t think Manning will take the drafting of Luck very well, since this is the first time he has ever missed any games in his career and he probably feels he has more than a few good years left in him.

That leaves Miami, and boy, do they need a quarterback. Starter Chad Henne has done little over his four-year career to suggest that he can lead a team to the Promised Land. Not to mention, he is currently on injured reserve, done for the year with a shoulder injury. With nobody waiting in the wings, you better believe that the Dolphins want desperately to draft Luck. They aren’t going to magically start playing better, even to save head coach Tony Sparano’s job — which he has had way too long anyway.

So there you are: The Dolphins are my pick for the Andrew Luck Sweepstakes. They will get to draft Luck and when he is drafted, he will say to the newspapers that he “envisions playing 15 seasons, going to multiple Pro Bowls, a couple Super Bowls and sees a parade through downtown in the future.” Wait, I’ve heard that before … that’s exactly what Ryan Leaf said when the Chargers drafted him.