It was supposed to be a quiet Saturday—third day of the draft, seventh round, just a few picks left. War rooms were winding down. Some GMs were already making celebratory dinner plans, others finalizing handshake deals with undrafted prospects. But not everyone was coasting. One coach was still watching the board like it owed him money. And when a certain name lit up at pick 241, he made his move. Because in the NFL, the last 10 picks aren’t about depth—they’re about disruption.

‘When you play the game of NFL thrones, you win or you scramble,’ Sean Payton might’ve whispered to himself last Saturday, channeling his inner Cersei Lannister while sipping his third espresso of Draft Day 3. But instead of swords and crowns, Payton’s battlefield was the NFL war room, and his dagger?

Snatching Caleb Lohner nine picks before the Colts could ink him as a UDFA. Cue the chaos. Let’s break it down: the Colts, sitting at pick 232, had a pinky-promise deal with Lohner—a 6’8” former hoops star who pulled off a Friday Night Lights worthy pivot to football, snagging four catches (all touchdowns) in his lone season at Utah. His résumé screams Joel’s redemption arc: BYU rebound king (7.1 boards/game), Baylor’s NCAA Tourney perfectionist (5-for-5 shooting), and Utah’s TD magnet.

“He’s got cheat code vibes,” one scout drooled. But Payton, ever the villain in this AFC West drama, swiped Lohner at 241, leaving Indy scrambling for Plan B: Hunter Wohler, a tackling cyborg with 229 career stops. “There are no answers, we just have to play better,” Wohler once grumbled after a Badgers loss. Classic linebacker poetry.

Lohner’s journey? Pure Disney+ script fodder. From dunking on college courts to high-pointing end zone fades, his 12-game football teaser reel had scouts buzzing. Even his NIL hustle—Opendorse deals, a free Dodge RAM from Kunes Auto—smacks of Ballers level savvy. But Payton’s gamble? Classic. For a Broncos squad sitting on $17.38M cap space (19th in the league), Lohner’s $840k cap hit is a lottery ticket. Meanwhile, Indy’s $23.15M cap cushion (post-$4.7M rookie signings) feels thinner than a rookie’s playbook.

But the Broncos aren’t the only ones pulling off maneuvers that remind us of Game of Thrones.

Payton front office espionage: Raiders raid Broncos’ castle

If stealing Lohner was Payton’s jab, the Raiders’ next move was a Succession level power grab. Four days post-draft, Vegas swiped Broncos’ scouting director Brian Stark—a 13-year Denver vet who helped unearth gems like Patrick Surtain II—as their new assistant GM. Stark’s résumé? Thicker than a Von Miller edge rush: Yale OC, San Diego State schemer, and Denver’s draft-day Yoda since 2016. ‘Keep your friends close, your enemies closer,’ Raiders GM Tom Telesco definitely muttered while signing Stark’s contract.

Stark’s defection isn’t just a staff shuffle, it’s corporate warfare. He knows Denver’s draft crushes, their secret sauces, their playbook hieroglyphics. And with Vegas eyeing a rebuild (and Stark’s Yale-honed IQ), the AFC West just got spicier than a Patrick Mahomes mic’d-up rant. Meanwhile, the Colts cling to traditions, like slamming an anvil post-win at Lucas Oil, to summon that horseshoe magic. Because in this league, today’s underdog is tomorrow’s diamond.

As for Lohner? Kid’s already living that Madden create-a-player dream. “Just be yourself, show up, do what you do every day,” he shrugged, sounding more like a Zen master than a 7th-round flier. And Wohler? He’s too busy chasing QBs to care about draft-day drama. Because in the NFL, the only guarantee is chaos, and Sean Payton’s grin, wider than the Mile High end zone.