When Week 14 began, it appeared the Chicago Bears were going to get a little bit more help when it comes to 2023 NFL Draft positioning.
Thursday Night Football featured a matchup between the Las Vegas Raiders and Los Angeles Rams. The Raiders, for one, had been victors in three straight. The Rams, on the other hand, have been decimated with injuries and were going to roll out a quarterback they had acquired just 48 hours earlier in Baker Mayfield.
The Rams’ first-round pick is going to the Detroit Lions, which makes things even more interesting as an NFC North squad. As the game progressed, the Rams ended up pulling off a miraculous comeback win and improved to 4-9 on the season, which kept them firmly beneath the Bears in draft order.
Chicago was sitting at the no. 2 overall pick after Week 13, and without a game this past weekend, looked to stay put. However, due to some intricate tie-breaking scenarios, they ended up falling down to pick no. 3.
Without stepping on the field, the Chicago Bears were losers, in a way, during their bye week.
Because the Denver Broncos lost to the Kansas City Chiefs, they actually leapfrogged the Bears in draft positioning, jumping up to the no. 2 pick. Now, that Broncos pick actually goes to the Seattle Seahawks, which is a whole different, hilarious story in and of itself.
The Bears and Broncos have the same record at 3-10, but there are some detailed tie-breakers that go into giving Denver the higher pick. The tie is broken via strength of victory and record in similar games.
The remaining schedule for the Bears features two heavyweights in the next couple of weeks, with Chicago taking on the Philadelphia Eagles and Buffalo Bills in back-to-back weeks. Those are surely to equal a pair of losses for Chicago, dropping them to 3-12.
From there, they play two divisional games between the red-hot Detroit Lions and the North-leading Minnesota Vikings.
One could argue that the Bears will finish 3-14 on the year.
Denver, meanwhile, finishes with games against the Arizona Cardinals, Los Angeles Rams, Kansas City Chiefs and Los Angeles Chargers. Of those games, the Rams seems to be the most winnable matchup for Denver.
Although, the Broncos will be without quarterback Russell Wilson for the immediate future due to a concussion. We’ll see if Brett Rypien can manage any better than Wilson has done thus far.
What we know, at the moment, is that the Bears did drop a draft spot though. For the fans clamoring for the highest possible draft pick so that Ryan Poles can get on the phones, this was a highly-valuable drop, albeit just one spot.