Maxx Crosby made headlines on Christmas Eve when he shared his frustrations with the Raiders and compared his situation to what Myles Garrett is going through with the Cleveland Browns.
Crosby has pulled back the reins on his sentiment toward the team in recent weeks, and he has not requested a trade the way Garrett did in Cleveland. But Crosby also doesn’t have a new deal with the Raiders and until that happens, the door isn’t shut on the idea of him playing for a different team in 2025.
Every indication has been that Crosby will return to the Raiders next year, but as Yahoo and FOX Sports host Jason Fitz pointed out this week on the team’s flagship radio station, there are financial matters that still need to be sorted out between Crosby and the Raiders.
“I laid out that Sam Darnold was going to get a ton of money, and then we’ll see if he was good, but Frank [Schwab] laid out probably the tougher hard truth [around the Raiders], which is [that] there is a real contract situation right now with Maxx Crossby,” Fitz said on Raider Nation Radio’s Morning Tailgate.
“I love Maxx. We talked to Maxx in New Orleans. I interviewed him for Yahoo and talked to him for a few minutes before and afterwards… I’m not telling them anything they don’t know, but Maxx has been through so much chaos, through so many coaching changes, and he’s heard so much rhetoric on why it’s going to be different,” Fitz continued.
“I think the organization needs to… make sure that they can get him on board… but then they also need to get him paid. They’re going to need to avoid a Khalil Mack situation. It’s going to take big money, and I think they’re going have to go out and do that ASAP. If they want to keep Maxx Crosby as a Raider for life, which I think is what most of us hope happens.”
Co-host Vinny Bonsignore, of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, chimed in after Fitz’s comments and said the team has budgeted to pay Crosby in the offseason.
“If it makes you sleep a little bit easier, I’ve been told that the money’s in the budget for that to happen,” Bonsignore said. “So we’ll see where that all heads.”
As recently as last week, Crosby made statements in support of the direction the Raiders are headed as an organization, and said his perspective has changed a little since Pete Carroll was hired.
“I’ve had doubts in the past,” Crosby said earlier this month. “I feel like this past year was the hardest part of my career. Battling through injury the whole year, struggling, losing 10 games in a row. Up here, it makes you start questioning a lot of things.”
Crosby said he has been involved in conversations with Tom Brady, John Spytek and Carroll in recent weeks, and has been encouraged by the new direction of the organization.
”It seems as if we’re going in the right direction,” Crosby said. “I can’t say that it is, but this probably the most optimistic I’ve been in recent years.”
For Raider fans wondering how new GM John Spytek might feel about Crosby, a year-old quote from Spytek would suggest he will do everything possible to keep Crosby in the building.
In an appearance last year on the Pewter Report, Spytek talked about the importance of keeping good players and specifically emphasized the importance of keeping good pass rushers.
“I don’t think you can ever let good players leave a building, and I certainly don’t think you can ever let good pass rushers leave a building,” Spytek said. “You’re crazy if you do that because they are going to end on another team and along the line, they’re going to hurt you.”
x: @raidersbeat