The Raiders had a pretty solid duo of Maxx Crosby and Yannick Ngakoue rushing the passer last season. Easily their best pair since Khalil Mack played Batman to Bruce Irvin’s Robin.
Then the Raiders had the chance to field their best duo in decades and didn’t hesitate.
Chandler Jones became an option for them, so they signed him and flipped Ngakoue for CB Rock Ya-Sin.
Turns out Jones’s availability had everything to do with getting a chance to team up with Maxx Crosby.
“The main reason why I came [to the Raiders] was to play with him,” Jones said of Crosby.
“I would text him to talk about pass rush for years before coming here, so the opportunity for us to be on the same team is just surreal.”
Jones has put up double digit sacks in each of his past seven full NFL seasons. While Crosby has been among the league leaders in pressures each of his three seasons and is coming off his first Pro Bowl.
What those of us who have watched Crosby in practice the past three years have come to know him for is his work ethic. Jones is coming to see that too, and it’s pushing the 11th year veteran.
“He’s already been pushing me,” Jones added of Crosby. “It’s insane almost to this point. Where I am at this point in my career, going into my 11th season. There’s been a few times in this camp now where he’s running to the next drill and I’m kinda like ‘I gotta run faster. Look at Maxx, he’s already over there.’ He’s younger than me, but he’s pushing me in that sense already. . . I get giddy even talking about him. He’s probably out there waiting for me right now, that’s my boy.”
Crosby and Ngakoue came with some hype. It’s fair to crank that hype up a few notches with Crosby and Jones.