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.”
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.