There's a line between tanking and incompetence.
I don't believe Indy tanked. They carried their vet roster through the season, and it was a good roster.
https://www.pro-football-reference.c...011_roster.htm
Chris Polian was the GM (pro personnel head for the Washington Commanders atm), the lost but stoic Jim Caldwell was the coach, and they'd purposefully groomed Curtis Painter (no, really), as Manning's backup. They were inept and bumbled into it.
Look at the Browns, they look close to a tank, but they're still inept.
Houston, with a bumbling organization, looks like a tank, but still, inept.
In a different sport, the Sabres almost certainly tanked, and they're still trying to shake off the stench. If you instill losing, no one playing for money cares, it's just a paycheck from an organization not committed to anything but blue skies that might not include you anyway, because they're that shameless and you're a chip.
"Tank" is a popular term for "we're so clueless we've become that bad".
I still see selling off McCaffery as prudent, he's not going to last the rest of the season, and that draft pick haul can make Carolina a team again. If they aren't inept.