Look at it this way. Now Maxx Crosby doesn’t have to write one of those scathing letters to Las Vegas Raiders fans thanking them for their love and devotion and pledging eternal loyalty. Before he heads off to work for a different fan base that he’ll learn to love just as much. Now he can go home and act to his neighbors like he never intended to go anywhere, no matter what the moving van in front of him means.
The modern NFL’s great “How can I miss you when you’re not gone?” In one of the moments, the Baltimore Ravens walked away from a blockbuster deal they made two days earlier to acquire the Raiders’ defensive game-breaker. On the surface, Crosby’s post-surgery knee had not healed enough to pass the team’s physical, but perhaps that was because the Ravens were rethinking the loss of two first-round draft picks they had committed to sending to Las Vegas. exchange. Since these are the Raiders, we get a new round of “Of course they’re the Raiders. Did you expect it to be normal?”
To be honest, it’s not entirely fair in this case, but the circular logic of failure based on past failures is also very much a part of the Raider ethos. They’ve been brave, bold and free-spending during free agency, which technically starts later this afternoon. That last part is a mockery of a verb tense that only makes sense in a world where deadlines are mostly proposals, but a promise is certainly a promise, and while the deal isn’t official yet, the Raiders will now have to fit Crosby’s return into significantly bolstered cap space.
In addition to the aforementioned cold feet speculation, there were also suggestions that the Ravens were unhappy with losing their center Tyler Linderbaum in free agency to these very Raiders ($81 million if they keep score at home over three years), so they decided they didn’t like trading Crosby in that context and walked away for that reason. Considering that the movement we’ve all seen and heard about hasn’t officially happened yet, this would be completely legal. Honestly, it would be a better story in the end, and a lot more of a Raiders story. They finally set about solving a problem that had plagued them for 25 years and put everything back together. Because of one of those movements This can only happen to one NFL team, and it could be happening to that team here.
Whatever happens here with Crosby, he’s not going to Baltimore. The Ravens, who didn’t trade Crosby, committed $112 million over four years for Cincinnati edge Trey Hendrickson, but technically that deal didn’t happen either. It’s either opportunism after dodging a medical bullet with Crosby, or it’s poor staff work to try to trade Crosby when they can send a close fax without spending any draft capital.
But even if Crosby’s untouchability was really just a medical issue and his knees were actually fish fillets with tattooed skin on the outside, it’s Raider-y to have two incoming first-round draft picks (selected as part of a massive rebuild that required years of single-digit wins and double-digit losses) to once again disappear as if they had never happened. And if you want to get technical about it, they weren’t. Despite that.
Anyway, now the Raiders have Maxx Crosby again, despite their relationship breaking up at the end of last season’s recent losing season. They could probably work out a new Crosby contract with another suitor. However, it is unlikely that the same price tag will apply. Not only because of the postponement ostensibly due to physical deficiencies, but also because most teams would be reluctant to move multiple first-round picks for a good player with odometer issues. Crosby will be 29 years old with a history of knee injuries, which would be a difficult sell under normal circumstances, and the fact that the Ravens backed out of the deal for medical reasons almost certainly makes other teams wary of taking the same risk.
But the Raiders also have $35 million in cap space and $31 million in cap commitments again, as Crosby is officially back where he never left. This means offseason spending will have to slow down somewhat as he will no longer be getting paid. Even with as much cap room as the Raiders have, finding out they have $35 million less than they thought would put a serious strain on their shopping budget.
As always, how much of this can be directly linked to Shadowman Tom Brady’s work depends entirely on your sense of humor. But it has that typical Raider feel. The team, belatedly trying to get up, discovered that the janitor had waxed them while they were lying on the floor. The time/space continuum trimmed throughout the Raiders is more of what they’ve been trying to overcome since 2002. It is a conviction that nothing good can happen to them because they have never done a good job of making it happen. And the best part is that the otherwise Crosby trade can’t be used as evidence because it never happened, even though it clearly did. Good intentions mean nothing if they are officially just intentions. In the meantime, we can eagerly await a letter from Crosby thanking his fans for believing in and supporting him during his time in the deal-making underworld before he returns to his current football purgatory. okay? We knew you would.
