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It’s a tale as old as time ... or at least the last several weeks. The Cleveland Browns are winless and in possession of the top pick in the 2018 NFL Draft. They currently own two of the top 10 picks as they have the Houston Texans’ first-round pick as well. The San Francisco 49ers, with a single win, remain in possession of the second overall pick.
They are the lone one-win team, while the New York Giants are sitting in third with two wins. The teams the 49ers were competing with earlier in the season have been shuffled somewhat though, with teams like the Los Angeles Chargers and Cincinnati Bengals picking up wins in recent weeks — both are on two-game winning streaks.
Now the 49ers are primarily worried about the Denver Broncos, losers of seven straight as well as the Chicago Bears, losers of four straight and their opponents in Week 13. The Indianapolis Colts have lost a pair of games in a row and sit at 3-8, same as the Broncos and Bears.
Outside of those teams, the Miami Dolphins are among the four-win teams who are shooting up the draft order, with five consecutive losses.
Below, we’re going to take a look at the games that matter to the 49ers and the 2018 NFL Draft top three or so picks.
Browns (0-11) at Chargers (5-6): Cleveland — The Browns aren’t going to beat the Chargers. The Browns aren’t going to beat anybody. I’m convinced they’re going winless. But I could be wrong...
49ers (1-10) at Bears (3-8): Chicago — I won’t root for the Bears, obviously, but for draft order, the 49ers need to keep losing. The Bears are close enough to them to still be a threat anyway, though.
Giants (2-9) at Raiders (5-6): New York — The Giants can take the second pick — or even the first one — so the 49ers need them to win games. With Geno Smith at quarterback, however, I seriously doubt it.
Broncos (3-8) at Dolphins (4-7): Denver —The Broncos are bad enough that even if the Dolphins had the same record as them, we’d be rooting for Denver. There aren’t many wins still remaining on their schedule.
Colts (3-8) at Jaguars (7-4): Indianapolis — The 49ers probably should have beaten the Colts. The Colts probably won’t beat the Jaguars.