If Maxx Crosby is going to be back with the Raiders next year, the storylines around the Raiders’ All-Pro pass rusher are going to need to change, and so far, that hasn’t happened.
If anything, trade rumors have intensified since the NFL Combine last week and it’s starting to feel like something could happen with Crosby sooner than later.
Crosby has done little to address the rumors, but he did post a song on social media on Wednesday about being “a lone *** Cowboy.”
Earlier in the week, Raider Nation Radio host ‘JT the Brick’ said there has been a lot of “fake news” swirling around Crosby since the end of the season, adding that outlets have been using Crosby for clicks. JT acknowledged that a trade could happen but said a lot of outlets are just “throwing stuff out there.”
On Wednesday, though, JT said the smoke around Crosby has reached a level that’s concerning.
“[Rumors around Crosby] are at an alarming high rate right now. They’re at the rate that I haven’t seen in quite some time in the Raider Nation. We haven’t seen it. We haven’t seen it at this level before,” JT said on his Raider Nation Radio show.
“When we see it at this level, it concerns me. I’m concerned about it because where there’s smoke, there could be fire. Now, I’ve told you the whole time, I don’t think that there’s anything there with Maxx Crosby. I’ve talked to Maxx. I’ve been with Maxx a little bit lately. I think that Max wants to stay, but I’m not positive if his agent wants him to stay, which I don’t know anything about that, but you never know, there could be a conversation that we’re not all aware of, which could be Maxx and his agent and his wife and his family. But I have spent time with his wife and Maxx, both of them, and his agent. I was not concerned that Maxx is looking to get out of here.”
As for the idea that Crosby needs to address the trade rumors and say he wants to remain with the Raiders, JT said Maxx doesn’t owe the fan base a statement like that.
“A lot of Raider fans think that he needs to put this to rest and come out there and say, ‘I’m a Raider for life, I got a tattooed on my chest, this is who I am,'” JT said.
“It doesn’t have to do anything for you. Let me repeat. That’s the point of this whole debate and there shouldn’t be a debate. You think that he has to do something for you that no one else on the team is doing? No one else on the team has to stand in front of a podcast or a microphone saying I’m going to be here for life. I’m going to be here for life. Maxx has done this. There are a hundred clips on YouTube as he’s been a Raider from Oakland all the way to Vegas where he told you he loves the team…”
While it might be true that Crosby doesn’t owe the fans anything, we’ve seen how he has responded in the past when he wants nothing to do with a trade, and that’s not what we’re seeing this time.
Maybe Crosby is tired of handling rumors the way he always has, but as JT pointed out, the “smoke” around the situation is unlike anything we’ve seen before now.
The fan base might not respect a few of the media personalities covering the situation in the last few weeks, and understandably so, but that doesn’t mean every storyline around Crosby has been made up.
From the outside, it feels like Crosby’s days with the Raiders are numbered and if he’s going to remain with the team in 2026, it’s going to take some level of mediation to restore the trust that has seemingly been lost.
x: @raidersbeat
I don’t blame Maxx or the organization if they trade him.
But they better not blow the picks like the Gruden & Mack trades