The Texans Won By Not Playing

Some teams are fighting for homefield advantage. Other teams are fighting for a playoff spot. Then there are those at the bottom, having a pillow fight to determine who will round out the bottom of the NFL Draft order. At 1-8, your Houston Texans find themselves armed with geese feathers. By not playing last week, they won this week.

Yesterday, the Detroit Lions tied the Pittsburgh Steelers, who trotted out Mason Rudolph at QB since Ben Roethlisberger came down with COVID-19. Jared Goff did his best Roethlisberger impression by throwing the ball within seven yards of the line of scrimmage. Detroit’s defense forced turnovers. The Lions made enough big runs to score points. All in all, as hard as they fought, they still ended up tied with Pittsburgh. Go Loins!

The Lions are now 0-8-1. The updated draft order for 2022 is as follows:

1. Detroit Lions 0-8-1

2. Houston Texans 1-8

3. New York Jets 2-7

4. Jacksonville Jaguars 2-7

5. Philadelphia Eagles (via Miami Dolphins) 3-7

As a result, Houston now has an inside track to the first overall pick in the 2022 NFL Draft. If Detroit wins a game, Houston jumps them to snag the first overall pick. Detroit has games left against under .500 teams in Chicago, Atlanta, and Seattle. Houston has games against Jacksonville, Indianapolis, and New York (J) that could net them an extra win. As we know, there’s also any given Sunday and such, where teams can pick up a bizarre upset.

The race for the number one pick is on. The Texans have pick number two, but with six teams behind them with three wins and the Jaguars and Jets with two, the Lions are hanging on to first overall. Fortunately, things worked out for Houston on the bye week.

One of the few things this franchise is good at doing is locking down first overall picks. They have picked first overall three teams in franchise history. 2022 may become the fourth time.