Tag: Maxx Crosby

Dan Campbell suggests Lions are hunting for a pass-rusher (Maxx Crosby?) in a trade

The Lions feel like they’re on the verge of a blockbuster trade.

For all intents and purposes, the Detroit Lions are a bona fide Super Bowl favorite. They are easily the best and most complete team in the NFC. But every top-flight contender could still use a little help. The Lions, now without star pass-rusher Aidan Hutchinson for the season, are no different.

That’s why it was eye-opening to see Lions head coach Dan Campbell allude to the possibility of Detroit making a big trade over the next couple of weeks.

In an appearance on Detroit sports radio station 97.1 The Ticket, Campbell hinted at the Lions “needing a little bit [more pressure]. As the Lions peruse their options, Campbell maintained that people they’ve brought in for try-outs could also always be a possibility.

But the obvious elephant in the room would be taking a big swing in a potential Super Bowl year. You know, a home run like Las Vegas Raiders All-Pro Maxx Crosby, who happens to be a Michigan native:

https://twitter.com/DetroitOnLion/status/1848544980266049886

I firmly believe that the Lions have enough if they want to go all the way. Because of their dominant offensive line, they have an unstoppable offense no one has an answer for. And even without Hutchinson, they have enough defensive playmakers to flip a big game.

With that said, Detroit’s core is already locked up for the foreseeable future. Now would be the time to take a calculated risk and bring in a superstar to a heavyweight team. Can you imagine someone like Crosby in Detroit wreaking havoc off the edge? Furthermore, can you imagine him teaming up with Hutchinson next year?

If the Lions make a move — and it sure seems like they will — that’s the outcome I’m rooting for.

5 Reasons for Optimism for Raiders Week 7 vs Rams

It may seem like every team the Raiders face is in better shape than them. But that isn’t always the case. In fact, the Raiders actually have a better record than their next opponent. The Raiders are at 2-4 on the season, while the Rams are 1-4. So, …

It may seem like every team the Raiders face is in better shape than them. But that isn’t always the case. In fact, the Raiders actually have a better record than their next opponent. The Raiders are at 2-4 on the season, while the Rams are 1-4. So, while there are certainly causes for concern, you probably don’t have to look too far to find some reasons for optimism. Here’s a few.

Each week since Crosby missed his first career game, he has looked better and better. Last week in the loss to the Steelers, he was racking up the pressures and only Justin Fields’s supreme athleticism and quick decisions kept him from getting blown up by Crosby. Matt Stafford is not nearly that fleet of foot and is more likely to stay in the pocket than Fields was, opening up the possibility of Crosby getting home a few times.

These days the closest the Raiders have to a number one receiver would appear to be Bowers. He had nine catches last week and leads the team in targets (46), receptions (37) and yards (384). He leads the league in receiving among tight ends, and has him on pace to surpass 1000 yards on the season. Not to mention when he gets the ball his hands, he is among the league leaders in yards after catch. The Raiders will continue to feed him so long as defenses fail to stop it.

Currently the Raiders have the second worst rushing offense in the league. But this week they will go against the very worst run defense, so maybe they can get something going? The Raiders had the worst rush offense while Zamir W/hite was the feature back, so his potential return doesn’t necessarily mean a whole lot. But it can only help to have one more healthy back in the stable along with Alexander Mattison whose four combined touchdowns leads the team.

Looking at the kind of points the Rams have given up had me doing a double take. They have given up at least 24 points in all five games this season. Even the win. And they gave up 41 points to the Rams. The Raiders, on the other hand, have only scored more than 24 points once this season (26). So, maybe the Rams defense is bad enough that the Raiders offense can actually put some points on the board.

SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. Raiders’ home away from home. In fact, when they play the Chargers in LA, they get their best crowd of the season. Rams fans represent better than the Chargers, but even still, LA is Raiders country. And for that reason, the crowd is expected to be about 60-40 in favor of the Raiders. Which is about what you get at Allegiant on a good day. That should help the Raiders feel more welcome as well as keep down the noise when they’re on offense.

Matthew Stafford raves about Raiders star Maxx Crosby: ‘He’s an incredible player’

Matthew Stafford had nothing but great things to say about Maxx Crosby, calling him an “incredible player” with a relentless motor

Since being drafted in the fourth round in 2019, Maxx Crosby has been slowly building his resume as one of the biggest wrecking balls in the league. Crosby beats tackles to the outside with lightning speed and tremendous force when he goes inside.

He’s a stout run defender, a player who requires double-teams, and quite frankly, a quarterback’s worst nightmare. Ahead of the Rams-Raiders game on Sunday, Matthew Stafford spoke about what a disrupter Crosby can be.

“He’s an incredible player, to be honest with you,” Stafford said flatly. “He jumps off the tape. He’s in there on every single play, and his effort is relentless. He obviously has great skill, technique, and physical attributes as well, but he has the motor to go with it that’s as good or better than everybody that I’ve put on when I watch the tape. Really great competitor. We practiced against him a couple of times, and that same energy and effort was there. Overall, he’s an enjoyable guy to compete against. He’s intense out there, he loves playing the game, he loves competing and he’s a really good player.”

Crosby currently had 5.5 sacks on the season, adding to his career 57.5 sack total. Crosby hasn’t practiced yet this week due to an ankle injury and there are some who believe the Raiders could trade Mad Maxx the way they did with Davante Adams.

Stafford has been sacked 16 times this season and if Crosby plays on Sunday, it wouldn’t be a surprise if that number climbs higher.

Raiders, Rams Week 7 injury update: 2 key starters return to practice

Raiders, Rams Week 7 injury update: 2 key starters return to practice

A couple Raiders starters returned to practice Thursday for the Raiders. But four starters were still missing.

The two starters who returned were LT Kolton Miller and CB Jack Jones. The four still missing are DE Maxx Crosby (ankle), WR Jakobi Meyers (ankle), G Dylan Parham (foot), and DT John Jenkins (illness).

The ones to worry about are WR Jakobi Meyers and G Dylan Parham.

Meyers missed last Sunday’s game and the Raiders couldn’t get the ball to the wide receivers who were healthy for the game. And with Davante Adams now with the Jets, the Raiders were without both their outside starters to begin the season.

Parham left midway through the game on Sunday and was replaced by Jordan Meredith.

Maxx Crosby’s unsubtle comments about winning ‘wherever’ might open door to Raiders trade

Could Maxx Crosby actually be traded in the coming weeks?

Las Vegas Raiders superstar pass-rusher Maxx Crosby seemingly opened the door to him possibly being traded sometime in the future.

Speaking with reporters this week, Crosby said he wants to win now and isn’t interested in playing for a rebuilding franchise that will likely suffer losses along the way.

“I’m not here to rebuild. I’m here to win,” Crosby said about his football intentions, via Crunch Time Sports. “I don’t know, whatever that means, but yeah, I’m here to win now. Wherever I’m gonna be… I’m gonna be here to win. So, that’s all that matters to me.”

Fans across the NFL just did a double-take at Crosby saying “wherever I’m gonna be” with the 2024 NFL trade deadline just weeks away.

Crosby may well be open to the idea of a trade to a contending team that needs pass-rush help, which isn’t a short list. After the Raiders jettisoned wide receiver Davante Adams to the New York Jets this week, the idea of a Crosby trade becomes more realistic. He would have plenty of suitors.

However, Raiders owner Mark Davis squashed any idea this week that the franchise was interested in sending Crosby elsewhere.

“It’s unfortunate today, but there’s so much outside chatter that is not true,” Davis told The Athletic. “It’s not coming from any sources. It’s not coming from anything. My basic thing is never to answer all that stuff because, otherwise, you get trapped in this black hole. It’s just not happening.”

However, this is the NFL. All it takes is a trade request or a Godfather-style offer Las Vegas couldn’t refuse to spark a move. After all, this is the team that traded outside linebacker Khalil Mack at the height of his career for a bevy of draft picks and literally just traded Adams to New York.

If say, a pass-rush needy team with contention hopes like the Detroit Lions offers the Raiders two first-round picks and change, do they say no? Las Vegas could set itself up well for the future with this kind of draft capital.

Although, you have to consider the viability of having franchise cornerstones on your roster when a rookie quarterback comes to town. The Houston Texans and Washington Commanders are recent examples of teams whose fortunes skyrocketed once a star rookie entered the lineup.

Davis may envision his franchise like one of those with the right quarterback in place, which could make having an elite defender like Crosby all the more valuable. It’s not a guarantee you hit on your draft pick, but it’s worth considering as to why Las Vegas would want Crosby around for the next few years at least. Adams wanted out; we don’t know if Crosby does yet.

Davis sure sounds giddy about the idea of Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders sporting a Raiders jersey next season. Having a player like Crosby around for that kind of player’s arrival becomes all the more important.

However, Crosby sounds tired of losing in a Raiders uniform and could wish for a change of scenery. If he ever makes a trade request, Las Vegas finds itself in a tough spot. If that request came in the spring and a possible holdout came into the picture, that spot gets even tougher. The Raiders have more leverage in October than they would in March.

It’s anyone’s guess as to where Crosby finishes the season, whether that’s with the Raiders or another team. However, you can’t discount the possibility of something this seismic shaking up the league. Stranger things have happened, even though this isn’t as simple or likely as some fans might hope.

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Raiders, Rams Week 7 injury report: 6 Raiders starters miss practice

Another week for the Raiders with several starters missing.

Preparations for the Raiders week seven game in Los Angeles against the Rams have begun. This time without Davante Adams on the roster. But Adams wasn’t the only starter not practicing for the Raiders Wednesday. They were without six starters Wednesday.

Those starters included DE Maxx Crosby (ankle), WR Jakobi Meyers (ankle), T Kolton Miller (knee/shoulder), G Dylan Parham (foot), DT John Jenkins (illness), and CB Jack Jones (illness).

Maxx Crosby has been resting Wednesdays for a few weeks now and has played the past couple weeks. Same with Kolton Miller.

Meyers missed last Sunday’s game with his injury and the team struggled to replace him in the lineup. Dylan Parham left Sunday’s game with his foot injury and was replaced at right guard by Jordan Meredith.

Other Raiders players not practicing were linebackers Kana’i Mauga (knee) and Tommy Eichenberg (quad).

The only player missing for the Rams was long snapper Alex Ward (illness).

Ballers for Raiders Week 6 loss vs Steelers

Those who deserve the credit for playing well and the blame for the collapse.

You will rarely see a game where a team couldn’t get out of their own way quite the way the Raiders did on Sunday against the Steelers. There were some good performances in the game, but they were overshadowed by all the mistakes. And often times those mistakes literally wiped away those plays.

As always (or usually) we hand out the credit to those who played well before we get to those who tore it all down.

Ballers

LB Divine Deablo

Divine was feeling it in his first game back off injury, making plays all over the field. It was a tackle for loss on a catch in the flat that was the key play to end the Steelers’ first drive and force them to settle for a field goal. Then in the second quarter, he blew up a trick play and Justin Fields with it for a 13-yard loss that took them out of Vegas territory and ultimately ended the drive.

It was still a 7-6 Raiders lead late in the second quarter. A turnover gave the Steelers the ball on the Vegas 30-yard-line. But two plays later, Deablo picked off a pass over the middle to get the Raiders the ball back. At least for an instant he did. A roughing the passer penalty wiped it away and the Steelers kept the ball. They would ultimately get the touchdown, but on the two-point conversion, there was Diablo to knock it down to keep the score at 12-7 at the half.

Diablo would finish with six tackles, two for a loss, a sack, a QB hit, and a pass breakup (which he wasn’t credited for because it was on a two-point conversion).

DE Maxx Crosby

Early in the second quarter, the Steelers mounted their second scoring drive. But Crosby didn’t make it easy. On the second play, Justin Fields saw Crosby screaming around the right edge off the snap and instantly tucked it and ran for 14 yards. Two plays later, Crosby drew a holding penalty which got eight of those yards back. The Steelers still managed to get a couple catches and a run to make it to the 31. Maxx stopped them there with two pressures leading to incompletions and they settled for a field goal.

The next drive, Crosby would draw another holding penalty. Two plays later he would get another pressure to force an incompletion. Three plays later they punted it away.

Early in the fourth quarter, with the score still 22-7, Crosby filled his gap, leading to a tackle for loss, and blew up another run in the backfield for a loss. They couldn’t get it back and punted. He finished with a half sack, three QB hits, and two tackles for loss and affected the game even more than the stats showed.

TE Brock Bowers

The Raiders drove for a touchdown on their opening drive and the offense went through Bowers to do it. He laid a key block on a seven-yard run. Two plays later he caught an eight-yard pass. Next play he blocked on a nine-yard run. And finally, on second and goal from the two, Bowers cleared the path for the touchdown run.

To lead out the third quarter, Bowers made ten-yard catch followed by a nice catch for 18 yards on a ball thrown behind him while he was running right to left. Unfortunately that catch was wiped away by a holding penalty on Andre James.

Even without that catch, Bowers led the team with nine catches for 71 yards.

Honorable Mention

RB Alexander Mattison — Had 19 touches (5 receptions) for 65 yards and a touchdown. And had a second touchdown called back by a very suspect illegal man down field penalty.

Continue to the Busters…

The Raiders have stranded Maxx Crosby after the Davante Adams trade

The Raiders have put Maxx Crosby in an impossible position.

On Tuesday morning, the Las Vegas Raiders sent a light ripple through the NFL world when they traded perennial All-Pro Davante Adams to the New York Jets.

It was a deal probably written in stone the moment it was apparent Antonio Pierce’s team wouldn’t be competitive in 2024, necessitating that an older, unhappy playmaker like Adams would try and go contend elsewhere. (Note: Adams shining on a great Jets team probably won’t happen, though.)

But the elephant in the room still needs to be addressed as Las Vegas moves into the next phase of its kind-of-sort-of pseudo rebuild.

What the heck is next for fellow perennial All-Pro Maxx Crosby?

Try as Crosby might to explain the weird pushes of his coaches — you know, his bosses — I think it would be silly to presume he is entirely happy with where the Raiders stand:

Still, by early accounts, the Raiders have no plans to trade the 27-year-old. And why would they? You don’t just offload electric pass-rushers in the prime of their career and expect to get equal value in return. Crosby has averaged over 30 quarterback hits and 10-plus sacks over the last three seasons and is on a similar trajectory in 2024. He’s one of the finest edge defenders on the planet. That sort of franchise-player production is exceedingly rare, making it less likely that the Raiders will move on from his services.

Even with blockbuster deals on paper ramping up in recent years, it’s not how the NFL trade market works. Don’t expect that to change any time soon, either.

And yet, by that same token … how much does it benefit a rebuilding Raiders team to keep Crosby at this current stage of his career?

I hate to say it, but at 27, the next few years will likely be the best for Crosby as an NFL star. Given the history of older pass-rushers looking longer in the tooth as soon as a “3” and “0” appear as their age, it also probably wouldn’t be a stretch to assume this next multi-year stretch will be the last we see of him as a field-tilting game-breaker. For a guy who relies on his relentless motor more than most, it wouldn’t be foolish to think Crosby’s elite production falls off a cliff the moment he loses even half of a step in the coming seasons.

That puts the onus on the Raiders to compete now, for Crosby’s sake. Unfortunately, they’re nowhere close to a win-now position. I’m not even sure where to start to list out the Raiders’ laundry list of issues before they’re a viable competitor again.

They are years away, which would come near the tail-end of Crosby’s prime.

The quarterback of Las Vegas’ future is not on the current roster. Antonio Pierce has not clearly distinguished himself as this well-entrenched coach. Aside from promising rookie tight end Brock Bowers, the Raiders have a tremendous dearth of reliable playmakers. The offensive line can be described as patchwork at best. And Crosby aside, I really challenge you to ponder who, if anyone else, is a foundational defensive piece.

(Jeopardy theme plays.) Don’t worry, I’ll wait.

Considering that Crosby still has 2.5 attractive years left on his current contract, the writing feels like it should be on the wall. It paints the picture of a trade that needs to happen either now or in the near future. Otherwise, you’re simply letting a talent like him go to waste on a rudderless team going nowhere.

To be clear, I doubt Raiders owner Mark Davis would pull the trigger. With the Raiders hopeless, players like Crosby put butts in seats for any fans still sadly hanging around a franchise that hasn’t rewarded their faith in decades. Ticket sales and fan “loyalty” are often enough to keep organizations from punting on all-time talents.

But if Davis is serious about turning the Raiders around, he should at least pick up the phone and listen if anyone comes calling about Crosby. He’d be ignoring reality to a delusional point if he didn’t.

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Maxx Crosby downplayed his weirdly forceful push of a Raiders coach on the sidelines

Maxx Crosby’s excuse for pushing a Raiders coach is so weak.

Let the record show that if you push someone who is technically one of your bosses, then characterizing it as a love tap of sorts is something no one will buy.

Someone needs to relay this memo to Las Vegas Raiders superstar Maxx Crosby.

On Sunday, as the Pittsburgh Steelers pummelled the Raiders in a 32-13 win, Crosby started showing more and more visible frustration. His annoyance ended up manifesting in a forceful push of Raiders run game coordinator/linebackers coach Mike Caldwell on the sideline.

Needless to say, this is an unacceptable display from someone who is supposed to be a Raiders leader:

https://twitter.com/RaidersAQ/status/1845601668270104827

As the incident rightfully went viral, Crosby caught wind of the internet’s reaction after the Raiders’ loss and tried to downplay the incident as a “love push” that everyone was reaching about. Uh-huh, sure:

https://twitter.com/CrosbyMaxx/status/1845605844836306978

Everyone knows that it’s only a love push when you angrily push an authority figure in a blowout loss. Mhm. We should totally buy that.

Injury update: Maxx Crosby among several Raiders starters back at practice Friday

Raiders get some potential good news Friday with several key starters back at practice in prep for the Steelers.

With the Steelers coming to Las Vegas Sunday, the Raiders will need all the healthy bodies they can get. Friday’s practice will see several starters who had missed the first two practices this week return to the field, opening up the possibility that they will play Sunday.

None are more important than Maxx Crosby who has missed more practices than he’s particapted the past few weeks as he battles through a high ankle sprain. He played last week despite missing two practices, and is expected to do the same this week.

One of the more worrisome missing players this week is WR Jakobi Meyers. So his return to practice Friday was a welcome sight. With Davante Adams not playing with his hamstring injury and trade request, the Raiders were already digging into their depth chart at receiver. Meyers’s absence would have them woefully thin at the position.

Rookie guard Jackson Powers-Johnson missed Wednesday and Thursday with a knee injury and is returning Friday. Antonio Pierce expects he will play and is hoping the second round pick can hold up against All Pro DT Cameron Heyward.

Also practicing Friday after missing last Sunday’s game and the first two practices this week is RB Zamir White. It was expected that even if White were able to play last week, he would lose snaps to Alexander Mattison. White’s status is uncertain for the game.