2018 NFL Draft order: 49ers still in line for No. 2 overall pick

The Cleveland Browns (0-10) lost again on Sunday, and it wasn’t really close. The Jacksonville Jaguars, despite being a similar punchline in recent years, are actually a good team this time around, and the Browns retain the top pick in the 2018 NFL Draft with an 0-10 record.

It was expected that the San Francisco 49ers would lose the second overall pick to the New York Giants, the only team that Kyle Shanahan’s squad has managed to beat this season, but that didn’t happen. Instead, the Giants (2-8) went ahead and beat the Kansas City Chiefs, scooping their second win of the season, making them the only two-win team in the league.

Thus, the top three in the upcoming draft is Cleveland, San Francisco and New York. The Denver Broncos (3-7) have now lost six consecutive games and are shooting up the draft rankings, now in line for the fourth overall pick with a very low strength of schedule. If they keep it up and both the 49ers and Giants manage to win some more games, the Broncos will overtake them in draft order.

Then there’s the Indianapolis Colts (3-7) at No. 5, though they didn’t play on Sunday as they were serving their bye week, just like the 49ers. The Chicago Bears, on the other hand, managed to lose the third consecutive game and also fell to 3-7 on the season, and are now in line for the sixth pick.

That’s it for the three-win teams, though. Of the four-win teams, four of them were three-win teams going into Sunday, which means less overall competition for the 49ers, Browns, and Giants for the top three picks.

Next week

The Browns have what might be their most winnable game remaining on the schedule in the Cincinnati Bengals. Cleveland struggles big time with turnovers, but the Bengals do as well, so things could get interesting. The Giants will be in action earlier in the week, on Thanksgiving against Washington. Finally, the 49ers will play the rival Seattle Seahawks after returning from their own bye week.