Krumpin: DGAD bought a running back; Haters took the receiver room

By SKIP KRUMPIN

SAN JOSE, CA. (FAKE NEWS AP) — DGAD sent Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Brian Thomas Jr. to Haters Gonna Hate for Jonathan Taylor and Stefon Diggs, turning a receiver-led roster into an emergency repair job at running back and giving Haters two new wideouts to explain at the next press conference.

DGAD had Josh Allen and Baker Mayfield at quarterback. At running back, it had been asking Samaje Perine and a questionable Jeremiyah Love to hold the door shut with a folding chair. Taylor changed that. He became the back DGAD could build a lineup around instead of another name to check on Sunday morning. In a league that made room for a second quarterback but offered no sympathy for a weak backfield, the roster problem had been visible from the cheap seats.

The bill was JSN. DGAD gave up the receiver most likely to make an ordinary passing play look like somebody had turned the difficulty down. Thomas went with him, taking away a second chance at a big week. Diggs gave DGAD a receiver back, but his Week 7 bye made him a receipt rather than an immediate replacement. Thomas had the same bye, yet JSN was the one who could have helped DGAD immediately. The roster got sturdier at RB and thinner where it used to scare people.

Haters made the opposite bet. JSN joined Garrett Wilson and Matthew Golden at the top of a suddenly crowded receiver room, while Thomas supplied another swing at a difference-making week once his bye passed. Losing Taylor hurt more than a tidy trade graphic could show. D’Andre Swift and Chase Brown became the immediate running-back answer, and Bhayshul Tuten’s Week 7 bye left no room to pretend the position was deep. Haters had dressed up the passing game for a parade and handed the ground game a folding chair of its own.

The Krumpin chat had already spent the morning diagnosing the same illness. Haters said Phil had gone shopping after half the roster visited the blue medical tent. 4th and INCHES asked who grabbed J.J. McCarthy, then called the bidding close. My Team Sucks! looked at DGAD’s $37 bid for Jaylin Noel and called it crazy, then added the warning that mattered more than any receiver chart: if Baker Mayfield did not play, DGAD was in trouble. GolfNut’s verdict was shorter. “Phil ain’t stupid.”

The grade

Haters Gonna Hate: A-. Haters traded its best back and walked away with a receiver who could lead the room plus Thomas as the extra prize. That was a serious haul. The minus belonged to the RB bench: one injury could turn a victory lap into a waiver search. Adding two receivers did not magically make a third healthy Week 7 running back appear.

DGAD: B-. Taylor solved a real roster problem, and that mattered more than collecting another attractive receiver projection while Perine carried the backfield. But sending both JSN and Thomas made Diggs’ post-bye return do a lot of work. DGAD fixed one side of the lineup by making the other side sweat. Taylor had better be the difference-maker DGAD traded for, because the receiver cushion left town with him.

Two teams traded their roster problems. Only one of them got to call its new problem “too many receivers.”