MARCH 2: Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated and The Athletic’s Matt Barrows and Vic Tafur each indicate a return of multiple draft picks and a player is unlikely to be found in any trade agreement. Interest persists, though, and Breer predicts a trade will still take place this offseason.
MARCH 1: The Raiders have been slow-playing what is seeming like it will be an eventual trade of star defensive end Maxx Crosby. With the NFL Scouting Combine coming to a close today and the last few rumors of the weekend trickling in, ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler reports that, at the moment, the asking price for Crosby is still too high for teams to act on. 
As workouts at the Combine began on Thursday, it came out that, in order to let go of Crosby, Las Vegas was looking for a similar trade package to what the Cowboys got for Micah Parsons (two first-round picks and an impact player). While general manager John Spytek said earlier in the week that he didn’t expect a trade to take place, Fowler’s source with the team called Crosby’s chances of returning “relatively small.” Some team executives are skeptical of the Raiders’ intentions reasoning that any team would want to keep “a premier player at a premier position” and seeing the high asking price as a sort of fence being built up around Crosby.
That’s not to say that teams aren’t interested, though. Per Fowler, “at least a dozen teams have expressed cursory to strong interest” in the 28-year-old. If enough suitors are truly interested, it may behoove the Raiders to keep the asking price high. That way, as the demand builds up, a team may get antsy waiting for the price to come down and choose to come up to meet the asking price in order to avoid another team jumping in first. Plus, there’s still plenty of time for negotiations to take place as free agency, the draft, and the rest of the offseason sit on the horizon.
We’ve discussed comparisons of Crosby to Parsons and Khalil Mack, but in those discussions, Crosby fell a bit short of his competition. While his production has been extremely similar over the years, he hasn’t garnered the same award interest as Parsons and Mack. Crosby is also two years older than Parsons and Mack were when they got traded. That may be why the current comparable asking price seems too high; those extra two years of age may be enough for teams to balk at including that impact player or keeping both top picks in the package on Day 1.
The situation still has all the room in the world to continue evolving as the offseason progresses, so we’ll continue to monitor the level interest coming in on Crosby and how the Raiders react to that interest. It seems like we’re closer than ever to reaching a conclusion on Crosby’s trade possibility. Crosby wants to win, and as the Raiders come out of their fourth losing season in a row, a change of scenes looks to be his best bet at winning while still in his prime.
‘…Crosby wants to win, and as the Raiders come out of their fourth losing season in a row…’ So why did he sign the new contract last year? Winning at the bank is all he wanted and got it.
Because he had no leverage, are you really this obtuse?
Even if he lets his contract run out, the Raiders easily could’ve just franchised him twice and he would’ve made less guaranteed money then he signed for. So he wasn’t going to get to be a free agent for years, at an age that most teams refuse to pay massive contracts to.
Taking the time to make a snide comment with apparently no idea how the cap/franchise tag works is a bad look.
That literally is his leverage ‘No thanks’. He wanted the bank; not the wins. Hold him accountable. Same for Myles crying this year about another –shockingly–failed Browns season.
“Today’s a special day,” Crosby said at his news conference after signing the extension. “Being a part of Raider nation, being here almost seven years now, it’s been an absolute blessing in so many ways. My family, obviously my wife and my daughter here today, the sacrifice, the ups and downs, the 5 a.m.’s, the non-stop commitment to excellence on a daily basis is what this is all about. … Now I’m just focused on being the best version of myself every single day and giving them everything I got.”
What?? If he says no thanks, the Raiders make him play out the 2025 and 2026 seasons on his first bad extension. Then they just franchise tag him in 2027 and 2028.
So if he says “no thanks” to the extension he’s still going to be under the Raiders control until after the 2028 season. So he took the extension. Then he tried to win, played through injuries, and then was forced to sit out when they wanted to lose on purpose. Framing this as a Maxx Crosby problem is incredibly naive at best.
Boohoo. How many players are going to be traded this offseason while under contract? You act as if the players have no say in their careers; that’s a joke. I have worked on contracts. When the deal was up, I could either negotiate or move on.
What are you even talking about? He was going to be under the Raiders control through 2028 either way. So you’re suggesting he should have declined the extension, made less money, and still stayed with the Raiders?
All these paragraphs to not understand a simple point. I am done trying to explain things to a moron.
Again, boohoo to a multi millionaire.
@arty- Not sure posting that quote helps back up your opinion at all. What do you expect him to say, “this was possibly my only chance at a legit payday; unfortunately, it came from the Raiders, and I only signed to avoid the franchise tag. I don’t care about winning. ..”?
No one forced any pro athlete to sign any contract. Simple as that. Trades, cuts, re-ups etc happen every year in pro sports. M. Parsons chose to hold out, was traded, and paid. An easy example from last year.
So you’re mad because he didn’t hold out to force a trade? lol
I’m not mad at all. He’s the cry baby knowing how poorly run the franchise is through his entire career, gets a huge raise, then wants out? No sympathy for him.
Right, and it’s showing that you don’t really understand the business. It’s not 2005 anymore. Signing a contract is essentially meaningless for BOTH sides.
Signing a 3 year +$100m contract is meaningless? Huh?
Arty…
Doing contracts on Madden does not mean you have experience in contracts. You sound like a bitter, unhappy, ignorant guy boasting of bravado from behind the keyboard in mom’s basement.
International work contracts for manufacturing. Stop pouting at players that say ‘Pay me!’ then you act like their his kids being so excited. Followed by the player- 1 year later in this case- saying ‘I don’t like my deal anymore!’ which is then stated that the owners are always the bad people.
In fairness, Crosby probably thought this past season would be different with Bowers in his second year, Jeanty joining the team with Carroll and Geno coming to Vegas … once the season went over like a Led Zepplin … DaDaDaDa … Da … his frustrations over the season, and the teams’s decision to shut him and Bowers down for draft position, just boiled over into frustration.
I see arty’s point in general, especially in relation to Garrett, who put on a public show. I don’t think that it applies here, though. I do think that Crosby is very frustrated, but he hasn’t done a public tour about leveraging his franchise value to get an interview with Spytek regarding the “direction” of the team…only to sign a record extension and change his tune.
I still think that the Raiders ask for ridiculous terms to end up keeping Crosby, and then extend him at a high rate. I think think that it’s a silly approach for a soon to be 30 year old player on a rebuilding team (even though Crosby adds huge value as a tonesetter for new players), but that’s what I see coming. Two good picks on rookie contracts could be worth more in two years than Crosby.
That said, arty has a huge point in general when players claim that they’re about winning and culture, and then take deal willingly that doesn’t lead to wins, and then are publically frustrated. I don’t think that this describes Crosby, who has kept his frustrations private, but someone like Myles Garrett looks incredibly hypocritical when he has been in one place for years, paid very well, and then very openly talks about his need to see a good plan going forward…just to accept a megadeal and change his tune. It just sounds very flip floppy.
This is a long way to make no real sense either.
Arty isn’t talking in general. He’s talking specifically about this situation, which makes no sense. Crosby has done nothing wrong. The Raiders tanked on purpose and forced him to sit.
That’s why I said that I don’t agree. Did you read what I wrote? I said that the point can apply to some players, like Garrett, in my opinion, but it doesn’t fit Crosby from what I see. If that doesn’t make sense, okay.
Right, so why post it here? This is a Maxx Crosby discussion. Nobody is arguing that some people take the money and run. Crosby didn’t do that.
…Because it was brought up? I’m sorry, I’m not being obtuse purposefully, but I really don’t understand what your objective is. I agreed with you, acknowledged arty’s point overall, but stated that I did not think it applied to Crosby. I don’t understand the defensiveness here.
He probably did, with a new HC and regime coming in, plus the influx of young talent….but as its happens often, what looks good in summer practice, disapears in early winter losses that pile up and destroy the optimism of success.
Not quite. If he wants out and onto a winning org he can find a way as history has shown time and again. Doesn’t imply it would be painless for player and team esp when Maxx wants to be a raider and he clearly likes the good guy fan treatment. Who wouldn’t.
But to discount the fact he could force a trade, now that’s obtuse.
Huh?
He can force a trade either way. My point is he’s under team control through 2028 whether he signs the extension last year or not. So Arty is saying he should have passed on the money, and then still tried to force a trade this off-season with even less leverage.
The amount of comments here that just don’t seem to understand the simple facts of a salary cap and franchise tag are alarming. What do you guys read all day to have no understanding of contracts and NFL tags?
Offer to rework his contract and I guarantee you he will stay committed to the Raiders. It’s ALWAYS about the money. Just like Garrett it was a very low chance of him staying and they threw more money at him and he caved.
Imo he should just stay. He likes it there. The front-office needs to mend this thing together. Nobody is going to give up a 2027 first round pick anyhow. Max seems like a Raider for life just get this together.
If I’m Pitt
Offer them your 2nd, 1 of your 3rds, 2 of your 4th in this year draft and take Geno Smith which should lower the draft requirement.
Reunites Smith with Metcalf and a better offensive system under McCarthy than Carroll. Plus the Oline situation in Pitt is much better. Same with defense. I think Smith could be a decent CPOY candidate in Pitt
Raiders need all the help they can get. New regime needs picks.
Can’t imagine Vegas trading Crosby without getting more than a first. They have enough cap space to just eat the Geno deal instead of taking less draft capital. Also hard to see Pittsburgh investing even more heavily in the defense than they already do.
Reuniting Geno and Metcalf is not a positive. They had terrible chemistry.
Did they? From the outside seems like they were a decent combo
3 years, 3000+ yards, 19 TDs. 200+ catches
Exactly. Facts fight arguments
@dropped- Yes, it got pretty bad towards the end. They had regular disputes on the sidelines, Geno threw DK under the bus during a presser after DK ran the wrong route leading to a game sealing INT, and they just in general seemed to not like each other.
No one was ever going to give 2 1sts for him. That last report was insanely stupid
Lots of people are going to be surprised if Crosby does get traded, and they met 2 first rounders. This isn’t a Khalil Mack or Micah Parsons situation where only a few teams were suitors given the timing right before week 1 when those trades happened. Crosby has more potential suitors which only drives up the price. Supply and demand people.
When you set the price that high, there is 0 demand, as reported.
Yep. This is proceeding as expected. The Raiders are right to set the asking price so high.
Give it a rest please…
These lames need better sources 🙄
Crosby wanted to play and the team sat him (tanking has it’s rewards). I’d want to get out of there also.
The Raiders make the Browns look like they know what they’re doing.
Wonder if the Bears and/or Raiders would be interested in something like Crosby for the Bears 2026 1st, a 2027 2nd and the Raiders choice of either DJ Moore or Trumaine Edmunds. Moore had a down year, but that was 100% usage, not diminished skill. Bears had several mouths to feed last year.
Trade proposal :
Crosby, 1st round pick, Bowers to Ravens
Lamar, Mark Andrews, Mike Green, 1st round and 2nd round pick to Raiders
Who says no?
Only the Packers were dumb enough/ desperate enough to give up that much for the right to overpay Parsons a ridiculous contract. No team is doing that again. Crosby actually has a more team friendly contract, but Vegas still won’t get that package.
He will get traded and it will be for less than what Jerry got in fleecing GB.
Exactly. Packers finally made a big move after 20 years but it was the wrong player.