Two Weeks of Moves: Trade Grades and the Waiver Wire Report
Two trades cleared, a third blew up mid-negotiation, and the waiver wire has been busy covering for the injuries we flagged in the draft-day recap. Grades below, same rules as last time: pros, cons, a verdict, no participation trophies.
Two IR notes before we get into it. James Conner is starting the year on injured reserve — foot/ankle, minimum four games — and even healthy he's ticketed for a backup role behind Jeremiyah Love and Tyler Allgeier. Tank Dell is also opening on IR, still working back from the multi-ligament knee injury that wiped out his 2025. Both got rostered anyway this week. More on that below.
Trade Grades — San Diego Football Team ↔ Skatteboys (Sept 8)
The deal: San Diego gets Stefon Diggs, David Montgomery, and $15 FAAB. Skatteboys get Tetairoa McMillan.
San Diego Football Team: A−
Pros: Remember the RB2 hole from the draft recap — Corum, Henderson, Harvey, none of them with a path to 15 touches? Gone in one trade. Houston went and got Montgomery this offseason to be a three-down back next to Woody Marks, so this isn't the committee arm you drafted in August. Diggs slots in as Washington's clear No. 2 behind McLaurin now that Deebo's in San Francisco and Ertz is jobless — that's a weekly flex, not a name you're hoping ages well. Throw in $15 FAAB and San Diego basically got paid to fix its only real problem.
Cons: McMillan isn't cheap filler on the other side. Year 2 breakout case, ADP 38, some shops have him pegged for 140 targets. If Bryce Young takes even a small step forward, Skatteboys owns the receiver everyone's talking about by Thanksgiving.
Verdict: Two plug-and-play starters and cash for one unproven-but-buzzy piece, at the exact spot San Diego was thin. Make this trade every time.
Skatteboys: C+
Pros: Betting on McMillan's ceiling over Diggs at 33 and a timeshare back is a defensible read, and the roster can absorb it — Lamb and Waddle still anchor the receiver room, and Irving, Skattebo, and the rest of the backfield cover for Montgomery leaving.
Cons: Three pieces out — a starting-caliber WR, a newly-featured back, and $15 FAAB — for one player is a lot to give up even for the better long-term asset. The FAAB didn't need to be in there, and Montgomery walked for nothing extra on the ground side after his role got significantly better this summer.
Verdict: Right instinct, wrong price. This is San Diego finding a need and Skatteboys not charging enough to fill it.
Trade Grades — San Diego Football Team ↔ JahJonJuwan Jameson (Aug 29)
The deal: San Diego gets Jordan Mason and $4 FAAB. JahJonJuwan Jameson gets Blake Corum.
San Diego Football Team: B+
Pros: Mason isn't a handcuff in Minnesota, he's a co-starter — the Vikings are running him in a true split with Aaron Jones, and Mason actually saw more work than Jones inside the 20 last year. That's a safer floor than Corum, who's still second on the depth chart in LA even as that backfield trends toward a real timeshare. San Diego got paid $4 FAAB on top.
Cons: Mason's ceiling is exactly what the Vikings say it is. If Jones ever takes over the passing downs, this value dries up fast.
Verdict: The quiet trade that set up the loud one. Hard to go shopping for an RB2 upgrade three weeks later if you haven't already started selling off the pieces that didn't fit.
JahJonJuwan Jameson: B−
Pros: This is the roster that put 69% of its budget into Gibbs and Taylor and got flagged in the draft recap as the highest-variance team in the league — "root for health." Corum is real insurance behind two workhorses, and the beat reporters in LA think he's earning a bigger role anyway, not just sitting as an emergency handcuff.
Cons: Paying a FAAB premium for insurance is fine when your whole season rides on two players staying upright, but Mason was the better player in a vacuum, and the roster's actual soft spot — receiver depth behind Nabers — is untouched.
Verdict: Addresses the real risk on this roster more than it raises the ceiling. Sensible, not a steal.
The one that got away
Three days after the Mason-Corum deal, San Diego swung bigger: TreVeyon Henderson and Amon-Ra St. Brown to Skatteboys for Cam Skattebo and CeeDee Lamb. It got canceled before it processed. That's two blue-chip pieces for two blue-chip pieces, and it would have reshaped both rosters. Worth watching whether either side comes back to that table once bye weeks start squeezing everybody.
Waiver Wire Report
Austin Clout Demons — B+. Dropped Travis Hunter for T.J. Hockenson, and Tank Dell for Isaiah Likely. Both are correctly timed sells. Hunter's knee is healing fine, but Jacksonville has already said he's playing a "defense-first role" this year, which caps his offensive fantasy value regardless of health. Dell is stuck on IR for at least a month. Turning two futures into a tight end you can start this week is good process, not just a good outcome.
Tony's Titans — C−. Dropped Rachaad White, who landed in Washington and still has a path to touches, for James Conner, who's on IR for a month minimum and projects into a backup role behind Jeremiyah Love and Tyler Allgeier even once he's activated. That's chasing a name over a player with a clearer near-term outlook. The Woody Marks add the same week is the better move — he's Houston's third-down back now that Montgomery has early downs, which is real production in this format.
Rat Kings — C. Swapped Brian Robinson Jr. for Chris Rodriguez Jr., two committee backs buried on crowded depth charts trading places. Doesn't move the needle either way.
San Diego Football Team — B. Flipped Chris Rodriguez Jr. for Jake Ferguson before either trade landed — an unglamorous tight end upgrade that looks better in hindsight now that Ferguson's a depth piece instead of a starting need.
My Njigba Hurts, The Disturbance Regime — incomplete. Mike Washington Jr. and Kaleb Johnson are free bench stashes with open roster spots behind them. Nothing to grade yet.
JahJonJuwan Jameson — B−. Added Josh Downs, dropped Jonah Coleman. Trading a longshot RB dart-throw for a bench receiver is the right call when your actual need is depth at wideout behind Nabers.
Power rankings, two weeks in
San Diego Football Team → Tony's Titans → My Njigba Hurts → Austin Clout Demons → Skatteboys → Rat Kings → JahJonJuwan Jameson → The Disturbance Regime → step-substation → Tanjiro Kamado
San Diego had the best two weeks of anyone's offseason, turning a diagnosed weakness into a strength across two trades without touching their core. Everybody else spent the last two weeks playing defense against the injury report.