Has Maxx Crosby played his final down with the Raiders?
Based on comments from FOX Sports insider Jay Glazer, it definitely sounds that way.
On Wednesday, Glazer talked to Yahoo Sports host Jason Fitz about the Raiders’ decision to shut down Crosby at the end of the season and said the All-Pro edge rusher called him right away.
“When that happened, I remember Ian Rapoport, the team went to him and said ‘We’re going to do right by him. We’re going to shut him down and really going to protect him from him,'” Glazer recalled.
“And then Maxx is on the other line going ‘Man, screw these guys. They’re shutting me down. I am not about this. Hell, no. I’m not doing it. I left the facility. I’m out. I want to get traded. I’m done.’ I was kind of trying to talk [Maxx] off a ledge,” Glazer continued.
“I went to the GM, John Spytek, and I’m like, ‘Spy, you’ve got to understand. There’s a couple guys, if they tell you they’re playing, they’re playing. It’s not open for discussion. They’re playing. There’s certain guys they need it. For a guy like Maxx, he’s an addict… he needs structure. You can’t do that to him, so I want you guys, you can still go for the first pick, but it can’t involve him.”
Asked by Fitz what the trade return would be for Crosby, Glazer said it’s going to be a massive haul the Raiders can get.
“Probably more than Micah [Parsons],” Glazer said.
“The day it happened, no less than 20 teams called me and they asked ‘Dude, is this real? Can we get him? What’s it for?’ I’m like ‘We’re not there yet, but yes, it’s real.'”
Glazer added that he believes Crosby will be traded and it will most likely happen before the draft.
Whether Glazer or Crosby or anyone else wants to acknowledge it, the Raiders made the right decision to end Crosby’s season and place him on injured reserve with a knee injury.
Any severe injury, whether related to Crosby’s knee or not, could have ruined his value to the Raiders or any team interested in trading for him in the offseason. The Raiders were playing meaningless games at the end of the season and losing benefitted the organization more winning.
As it turned out, the Raiders got the no. 1 pick in the draft, and it changed the entire course of the offseason.
The Raiders are all but guaranteed to take Fernando Mendoza with the no. 1 pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, but the first pick is going to get them a lot more than just a quarterback.
Fernando Mendoza will give the Raiders hope at the most important position on the field and as the California Post’s Vinny Bonsignore pointed out this week, there’s a good chance the Raiders wouldn’t get Klint Kubiak if they didn’t have the rights to Mendoza.
“It doesn’t end with the quarterback, but it certainly starts with the quarterback,” Bonsignore said on Raider Nation Radio’s Morning Tailgate on Monday.
“We’re not having this conversation right now with Klint Kubiak unless Fernando Mendoza was in their crosshairs. If they didn’t have access to Fernando Mendoza and that number one pick… I could pretty confidently say that Klint Kubiak would not be agreeing to becoming the head coach of the Raiders,” Bonsignore continued.
“It’s what we talked about, why it was so important to finish with that topic. Because all of a sudden, that opens up your horizons on who you can really and realistically go target as your head coach. The Raiders tried to do that last year, without a real quarterback in place. With Ben Johnson [it was] ‘Alright, I got Caleb Williams over here. Who do you got? Nothing personal, but I’m going to go someplace where I feel like I have a chance because I have a quarterback in place.’”
x: @raidersbeat
Trading Max, that is ****’n ridiculous. I don’t care how the raiders do it but get good pass rushers to help Max. He’s the heart and soul of the team. In the past 20yrs or more the raiders have done a lot of stupid ****. Trading Max would b the dumbest **** they could possibly do. HE’S A RAIDER.
He’s showing signs of breaking down plus he’s close to 30. They should trade him to for the right compensation. This isn’t the Raiders of the 70s or 80s. Players don’t stay with a franchise for their entire career anymore. Get the picks to help build this thing the right way.
100% they should trade him, injuries are piling up. couple of first rounders. heartbreaking but its the right move. he can go to the rams and win now