Unless something unexpected happens, it sounds like Maxx Crosby will be with the Raiders until at least the trade deadline, and when the season begins in six weeks, all eyes will be on Crosby’s surgically repaired left knee.
Crosby said he expects to be at full strength by the start of the season, and after everything that happened with the botched trade to Baltimore, it’s no secret that Crosby is going to come back with something to prove.
It’s anyone’s guess what that is going to look like, but former Raider great Lincoln Kennedy talked about Crosby this week and said he thinks the Raiders are going to get a version of their All-Pro edge rusher that’s better than ever.
“I expect Maxx Crosby to be the defensive player of the year this year,” Kennedy said on the Locked on Raiders Squad Show.
“I think he’s going to follow a very similar suit like Myles Garrett. I’m not going to say he’s going to go out there and get the record, but I sense that Maxx is playing with a little bit of a chip on his shoulder.”
“I’m looking forward to watching number 98,” Kennedy continued.
“I also think there’s going to be somewhat of a play count this season. They’re going to limit his plays and that makes totally sense to me. He’s getting up there in age, knowing that he’s had a recent knee injury, you know the teams are going to salivate when he’s in there. There are going to be guys whether it’s tight ends or tackles. Everybody’s going to try to cut that knee. They’re going to try to go for that knee to test it out.”
Crosby is angry, but not at the Raiders
Kennedy’s co-host on the podcast, Q Myers, talked about Crosby’s mindset going into the 2026 season, and Myers believes Crosby has a chip on his shoulder, but it has nothing to do with the Raiders.
“I do believe that he has a chip on his shoulder. I do believe that he’s angry, but I believe he’s angry at the league. I don’t believe he’s angry with the Raiders,” Myers said.
“There’s a lot of questions from people on the outside… they chime in on my radio show all the time. Well Q, is he mad at the organization? I honestly don’t think so. I think that it was a mutual thing between the Raiders and Maxx Crosby. They both understood where each other stood, and okay, this is the deal that’s going to happen. We’re going to send you to Baltimore, but we’re not going to do it for less than two ones, okay?
“They got that. He was on his way. It fell through. He’s back. As he said on his podcast, hey, it’s just meant to be that I’m a Raider, and I think that he embraces that.”
As Myers and others have said, when Crosby is finally healthy, teams are going to be calling about him again, especially as the trade deadline approaches.
At the start of the year, Crosby has reportedly requested a trade from the Raiders.
According to everything being reported in the last few months, Crosby is no longer seeking a trade. And if that’s the case it would be interesting to know if the Raiders would take two first-round picks for him now… or was that deal only on the table because Crosby wanted out?
As the California Post’s Vinny Bonsignore said earlier this month, there are still a lot of directions Crosby’s future could go, and his timeline in Las Vegas could come down to how the Raiders play in the first two months of the season.
x: @raidersbeat