We already knew that the Houston Texans had lost by winning. With their 32-31 last-minute victory over the Indianapolis Colts, Houston conceded the first overall pick in the 2023 draft to the Chicago Bears, who lost, 29-13, to the Minnesota Vikings. With that, Chicago’s 3-14 record allowed the Bears to jump the Texans at 3-13-1.
Head coach Lovie Smith did not care — he just wanted to win, and kudos to him for that.
“All right, this is the option that I had,” Smith said after the game. “So, you’re saying, hey, guys, playing this last game, all that you’ve been working for all your life, you play to win, forget that, lose the game on purpose. I think that would be a hard one to get by. They wouldn’t expect me to say that. I didn’t. Each week our game plan to be to win the game. It’s kind of simple as that. That’s what we followed through on today.”
Makes sense, though it’ll be painful a few months from now.
If Bears head coach Matt Eberflus was excited about the possibilities, he wasn’t letting on after the loss to the Vikings.
“I just found out about it. That’s something we’ll talk about in the future. I don’t really have a reaction one way or the other right now. Just that I’m focused on our guys and doing the exit interviews for tomorrow.”
Another interesting thing happened on the final day of the 2022 regular season regarding the upcoming draft. The Denver Broncos beat the Los Angeles Chargers 31-28, giving them a 5-12 mark. When the Arizona Cardinals lost 38-13 to the San Francisco 49ers, Arizona moved from the fourth overall pick to the third at 4-12, while the Seattle Seahawks — who have Denver’s pick as part of the Russell Wilson trade — now pick fifth, behind the Colts.
Where it gets interesting is that unless these teams do something to move their quarterbacks in the offseason (highly unlikely), neither the Bears nor the Cardinals need quarterbacks. Which means that the teams with Justin Fields and Kyler Murray as their quarterbacks will be very much open for business when it comes to those picks and the trade value for them.
So, who are the sellers, and who are the buyers in these new scenarios?
Jan 1, 2023; Houston, Texas, USA; Houston Texans general manager Nick Caserio walks on the field before the game against the Jacksonville Jaguars at NRG Stadium. (Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports)
The Texans will most likely take whichever of the top two quarterbacks they prefer between…
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