Well, that's not how I remembered it. At one point, the Texans, Bears, and Panthers were all communicating with each other on a deal. At the time, Chicago had the 1st pick, and Houston had the 2nd pick. Originally, the deal was that Houston would trade up to 1 (swapping places with Chicago), with the Panthers then trading with Chicago to get the 2. Many expected Houston to draft Bryce with the would-be 1st pick, but that's just a speculation. Nobody knows for sure if Houston had truly wanted Bryce. In any event, Houston backed out of the deal and decided to stick with 2, which then prompted Tepper to work out a new deal with Chicago to get their 1st pick. Now, at this point, many speculated that Houston would skip drafting a QB entirely and instead use the 2nd pick to draft Will Anderson. However, this speculation is based on the assumption that Houston believed the only QB worth drafting was Bryce, and that the price to trade up to 1 to draft him was not worth it. Again, this assumption is without evidence. Far more likely is that Houston found out Tepper and Fitt were dead set on Bryce, so instead of wasting capital to trade up to 1, Houston was happy to remain at 2 and take Stroud and still have enough capital left over to trade for 3 and draft Will Anderson Jr, which is exactly how Houston ended up with both the Offensive and Defensive Rookies of the Year. If Houston had really wanted Bryce over Stroud, they would have traded up to 1 and taken Bryce.