Supply Chain Selection of vendors

Scenario:

The time frame for receiving proposals passed yesterday. You received 10 proposals; 2 sellers (vendors) have not yet responded, but they sent you e-mails yesterday morning telling you that they would have something ready for you within the next week. One of those sellers happens to be the firm that is preferred by Pat who is also the vice president of human resources. The other is a seller that could provide expert services for the intranet update that you have worked with successfully in the past.
You have a meeting tomorrow afternoon with Pat and the decision makers to evaluate the proposals. They are expecting you to have reviewed the seller proposals first and then have a recommendation of a single seller to consider for each part of the project.
You performed a proposal evaluation on the 10 proposals and identified a single excellent seller for each of the source selection criteria that you developed. You are not sure if you should consider the 2 sellers that have not responded, even though they are considered top runners. Describe your decision regarding the inclusion of those sellers.

Should you include them?

Do you include both of them?

Why or why not?

How will Pat respond, and how will you respond to Pat?