The one way the Seahawks could land the number one pick in the 2023 NFL Draft

The headline draws inspiration from our recent article about the one way the Seahawks could clinch a playoff spot in Week 17 (and the less optimistic companion piece about the one way the Seahawks could be eliminated from the playoffs before the Jets game).

However, instead of looking at what needs to happen for the Seattle Seahawks to make the playoffs, this article is looking at what needs to happen for Seattle to land the #1 overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft.

First things first, credit where credit is due – aka Twitter:

And a shout out to Seaside Joe since it was his newsletter that brought that tweet to my attention.

For those that cannot see the embedded tweet, here’s the scenario that it lays out:

If …

– – DEN loses to KC and LAC

– – CHI beats DET or MIN

– – HOU beats JAX and IND

The Seahawks would have the 1st overall pick in the 2023 draft.

Like me, the first thing most of you are probably thinking is, “There’s no way the Houston Texans are going to beat the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Indianapolis Colts.”

But . . .

• The Colts and Texans played to a 20-20 tie in Week 1; and
• The Texans BEAT the Jaguars in Week 5.

The also just beat the Titans (19-14) and played both the Kansas City Chiefs (30-24 OT), and the Dallas Cowboys (27-23) tight in close losses the two games before that.

There has been talk all year about the Texans tanking this season to get the #1 pick, but that’s clearly not their intent – at least not the last few weeks.

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Moving on to the Chicago Bears and the role they play in this scenario …

They need to win one of their final two games.

The bad news (for Seattle) is that the Bears have already lost to both the Detroit Lions (31-30) and the Minnesota Vikings (29-22) this season.

The worse news (for Seattle) is that Da Bears are currently riding an 8-game losing streak and have not looked good during much of that streak, including the 35-13 pounding they took at home on Christmas Eve.

The good news is that the Bears had a healthy lead against the Lions the first time around before collapsing at the end and losing by 1.

The better news is that the Vikings could be locked into their playoff seed by Week 18 and might opt to rest their starters.

With Seattle only needing the Bears to win 1 of their final 2 games in this scenario, the odds are looking pretty decent.

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Then there’s the Denver Broncos – aka the team the 12s are rooting against this year, aka the team that could hand-deliver us the #1 pick in next year’s draft.

The Broncos need to lose out.

They need to go 0-2 against the Kansas City Chiefs (Week 17) and the Los Angeles Chargers (Week 18).

For those that haven’t been following the Donkeys this year:

They just fired their head coach after dropping six of their last seven games, with the final straw seeming to be the complete ass-whupping they took from the Rams on Christmas Day (51-14 final score).

To their credit, the Broncos did play the Chargers tight in Week 6 (a 19-16 loss) and they played the Chiefs tight as well (a 34-28 loss in Week 14).

Unfortunately for the Broncos (but super fortunately for us), the Chiefs are currently battling the Buffalo Bills for the #1 seed in the AFC and the Chargers are looking to climb from the 6th seed to the 5th seed, so . . .

Denver is probably going to do their part and lose both games.

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Admittedly, a lot of things have to go our way for the Seahawks to end up with the #1 pick in next year’s draft.

But . . .

The Texans certainly could win their last 2 games, especially given how they’ve been playing of late.

The Bears could win 1 of their last 2 games.

And . . .

The Broncos have been doing us a solid all season – why stop now?

Go Hawks! (and Texans and Bears and Chiefs and Chargers)