The Houston Texans missed out on absolutely getting their guy to start the 2023 NFL draft.
With the Chicago Bears possessing the No. 1 overall pick, thanks to the Texans beating the Indianapolis Colts in Week 18 and the Bears losing to the Minnesota Vikings to finish with the worst record in the NFL, the Monsters of the Midway may be open to trade offers from teams needing a quarterback.
The Texans pick at No. 2 overall, and the Bears already have Justin Fields. Seemingly Houston is safe to still take the first quarterback off the board — unless a team works out a deal with the Bears to pick ahead of Houston.
Such is the scenario in Mel Kiper’s latest mock draft for ESPN. Kiper doesn’t specify what Houston gives up, only mentioning the Bears in 2017 gave up its first-, third-, fourth-rounders, and a 2018 third-rounder to swap Nos. 3 and 2 with the San Francisco 49ers to take quarterback Mitchell Trubisky. Kiper says he doesn’t think the Texans would pitch in their extra first-rounder at No. 12 overall. Instead Kiper mentions Houston having two third-rounders and how it “could be appealing.”
The Texans use No. 1 overall to take Alabama’s Bryce Young.
Meanwhile the Colts get paranoid about missing out on Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud and trade their No. 4 overall pick in Round 1, their second-rounder, and a third-rounder to the Bears to go up to No. 2 overall. Nevermind the Bears at No. 2 and the Arizona Cardinals at No. 3 overall are both not in the market for quarterbacks.
With the Texans still having their extra first-rounder, they take Texas Tech edge defender Tyree Wilson, who could be a dominant presence akin to what coach DeMeco Ryans had in San Francisco with defensive end Nick Bosa. Houston would still have plenty of capital throughout the draft to address other concerns on their roster.
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