Opinion·Orphans at a Bar
Greer does not need a rebuild. He needs the next ten weeks.
Skip Malloy’s five steps. Don’t sell the core at 0–4 prices.
Skip Malloy|Beat|October 5, 2026|5 min
Greer’s beat. Has the names. Wants the banner.
This is the plan for a team that scored 69 and lost its fourth game, and that still has the roster people were afraid of in August. It is not a teardown. If Greer starts selling Hurts, McCaffrey, Chase, and Jefferson because the chat has been quiet, he will miss this year and he will have less to show for next year.
1. Count the weeks before you count the losses.
The loss to John Mitchell is over. If you count it, he is 0–4, with ten games left before the playoffs and only six of them before the deadline. The Thursday after week 10 is the last night a trade can be accepted, and it has to be in Sleeper before that kickoff. Six teams get in. A team that wins seven of the last ten is 7–7, and a 7–7 team has a real argument in this league. A team that wins four of them is 4–10, and that team is playing for next year. The six games between now and that Thursday are the ones that decide which team he is.
2. Leave the core where it is.
Chase finished at 2.7 and is out with a concussion. Jefferson is out with an ankle. Rice had nothing and is still listed questionable. Diggs had 3.5 because he was the receiver left standing. That is an injury week, not a verdict on the franchise. The block has been open and nobody has answered it, which is information. It means the room does not want these players at the price Greer has in his head, or does not trust the weeks. Dropping the price on Jefferson while he cannot play is how you turn a bad month into a bad year.
3. Call Hefner about Najee. Call Fuss about his own pick.
The backfield behind McCaffrey is the hole. Etienne is on IR, Charbonnet is on the PUP list, and White is out. Montgomery and Pollard played. That is not a reason to move McCaffrey, Hurts, Chase, or Jefferson, and Thomas cannot trade, so Walker is not a phone call. Hefner is. He is starting Taylor, Henry, and Judkins, Saquon is out, and A.J. Brown is on IR. He can spare Najee Harris. Greer can spare Jameson Williams once Chase and Jefferson are back. Jameson for Najee is the text. If Hefner wants a sweetener, Greer still has his own 2026 second. He does not have his 2026 first or his 2027 first. Those already belong to Lucas and Morgan. The other call is Fuss, who just won on Cook, Javonte, and Warren and still has Stevenson and Henderson. Greer has no second quarterback to offer him. What he does have is Fuss’s 2029 first. Sending that pick back with Bateman, for Warren or Stevenson, is a real conversation in a dynasty. Sending it for a flier is how this roster becomes a rebuild. Nathan is the long shot. Jacobs is on the bench behind Gibbs, Kyren, and Swift, so Jameson and a second for Jacobs is worth asking once. If the answer is Jefferson or Hurts, hang up.
4. Tuesday is a claim, not a shopping spree.
A 69-point week is what puts you at the front of the order, and that spot is the whole asset. In this league almost every useful player is already rostered, so first claim is not going to produce a new first option. If a back has actually fallen into a job while Etienne and Charbonnet are out, that is the claim. A receiver is not. He already has the receivers. They are just not on the field, and burning the front of the list on one of them is how a bad week goes to waste.
5. After week 10, the record picks the deal.
Six games from now he is either alive or he isn’t. Four wins in that stretch makes him 4–6, with Chase and Jefferson the reason to still add a back, and the add is still Jameson or Bateman and a second, not the core. Two wins makes him 2–8, and that is when a veteran receiver can go for a younger back. Hurts, McCaffrey, Chase, and Jefferson stay unless the return is a back he would rather have for the next three years. The Thursday after week 10 does not care that he meant to call someone.
