With Sunday’s embarrassing 40-6 loss to the Colts, the Raiders drop to 1-4 on the season and the organizational priorities on the season should be starting to shift.
If the Raiders aren’t headed to the postseason in 2025, they are almost definitely going to be sellers ahead of the November 4 trade deadline. And if it plays out that way, there are two veteran contracts that GM John Spytek is sure to take calls about in the next month.
Trade rumors have been swirling around veteran wide receiver Jakobi Meyers for months, and it might be that Spytek didn’t extend Meyers’ contract because he had an eye on trading him during the season.
Meyers will be an unrestricted free agent after the season, and he’s going to have a lot of interest if he gets to free agency. The window to re-sign Meyers at a bargain price is closing and if the Raiders want to double down on their rookie wide receivers next year, unloading Meyers ahead of the trade deadline would make sense.
Meyers will turn 29 in November and might be worth a fourth or fifth round pick from a team looking to add a wide receiver for a playoff run.
For better or worse, the other veteran to watch is Maxx Crosby.
Crosby is the heart and soul of the Raiders both in the locker room and on the field. It would take a massive trade offer to pry him away from the Raiders, but the details of the extension he signed in the offseason make it clear that the door was being left open to trade Crosby.
This OverTheCap graphic (below) shows the dead money consequence and future cap savings if Crosby is traded ahead of June 1. It’s rare that a $30+ million per year contract comes with so much flexibility, particularly this early in the deal.
Trading Crosby might seem unthinkable, but it was only 10 months ago that Crosby sounded like a player who was ready to leave the Raiders.
If a couple of first-round picks are on the table before the trade deadline, it’s possible Spytek and Tom Brady will consider hitting a hard reset on the roster and trading Crosby.
And based on the way his contract was structured in March, it’s something Crosby and the Raiders were both thinking about when they agreed to the deal.
For anyone needing a refresher, here are Crosby’s comments on the Raiders and his future on Christmas Eve of last year…
“I had many people send it to me as well. You know, for me, I think everything he said, like, I fully agree with, you know what I mean?
I fully align with, I got at the end of the day, like, I’m not going to play the game forever. That’s where it gets, you could ruffle some feathers and people are always like, oh, he wants out or he… Cause I hear it all the time. People love to talk about me getting traded and that’s the reality. Like I’ve earned that right to be in, you know what I mean?
At the end of the day, I agree with what Myles said. I’m on the same boat. I want to win. You know what I mean? I want to know there’s a real plan and execution behind it. You know what I mean? It’s like, I put in way too much work and I get it from a front office standpoint and coaches standpoint, and be like, ‘oh, well, this guy just be a football player and stop worrying about it.’
I’m like, the people that have that opinion… I will never operate like that because you don’t, you’re not in my shoes and you could never be in my shoes. So like, you don’t understand what I do to even get on the field on Sundays, bro. Like I’ve had six surgeries now. I’ve put everything into it. I train all year round. I sacrifice all the time in the world, my daughter, my family, with y’all, with everybody, 24-7.
Like real isolation a lot of the time because I got to be up at 5 in the morning. No matter if it’s office, y’all know how it is. Like I put everything into it, and I’ve earned the right to say something. I’m not sitting here saying I got all the answers or I’m 100 percent right about everything. But at the end of the day, like my intentions are pure and like I want to win. And that’s all that matters to me.
And like, yeah, it’s been tough. You know what I mean? It’s been six years of inconsistency. You know what I mean? It’s new coaches every other year and this and this and that and new teammates. And there’s been plenty of times where I’m like, ****, like this D-line is cold.
And then I come back and every single one of them is gone. You know what I mean? And it’s like, what the, you know what I mean? And then it just, there’s on and on and on. There’s a lot of things. So it’s just like, it’s tough, bro.
Cause I feel for Miles because he’s in that same boat. Like Miles is a future hall of famer and he’s a great player and he’s earned the right to say what he wants. And he’s been in Cleveland and hasn’t won really. You know what I mean? We’re both, I think we both made the playoffs. How many, how many times?
He’s been in the playoffs twice. I’ve been in the league for six years and I’ve been in the playoffs once. Like, yeah, I want to be a part of something that is all about winning and all about football. You know what I mean? All about not the bullsh–, not all the extra ****. Like, I just want to win. And yeah, like I said, there’s obviously a million conversations to be had. Like, it’s no secret, you know what I mean?
Like my contract situation, I have no more guaranteed money. There’s a lot of different things. Like obviously, you know, there’s going to be a lot of things that need to be talked about. I’m looking forward to those conversations. So yeah, it’s going to be awesome. I’m really looking forward to this off season, the process.
I will say like on top of it, like the Raider fans have been dope as f—. And I love them to death. Like that’s one thing that through everything, like the fans have truly since day one, like embraced me and being in their corner, and I think it’s been the dopest sh–, like even with my injuries and all this sh–, like the support has been like the coolest sh– ever. And so yeah, there’s so many different things that got to be talked about. So it’s going to be interesting.
I’m looking forward to it.”
x: @raidersbeat
They need to consider moving assets that won’t be around after the rebuild, and that includes Crosby. Unfortunately, I don’t have any faith that Brady and company are capable of drafting talented players. Afterall, their first draft has been underwhelming!
It’s way too early to measure the production of a draft class from this year. However, it was common knowledge that our offensive line needed complete overhauling. And it was neither addressed in the draft or free agency adequately. And Pete wanting Geno was the worst mistake he made in his life. Gotta cut ties with him at the end of the season.
You’re forgetting that Brady insisted we NOT get Darnold & as Vinny admitted today Telesco wanted to sign D Jones when he got cut last year.
Brady will NEVER win. It never works & only an idiot like Mark makes Brady in charge of everything & he’s not even fully committed to the organization
Brady didn’t make the QB decision Pete did. I wanted Darnold. Many in this forum were vehemently against it. Who had a clue dimes would light it up? I liked him coming out of college. Sometimes a change of scenery makes all the difference. See Baker’s last stop in Tampa for reference.
The problem is the coach offensive and defensive coordinator, special teams coach the f’n quarterback. Get rid of thee above. He’ll never do it but mark davis needs to sell the team.
I don’t blame Chip. He has the TE WIDE OPEN on the goaline for a TD & Geno doesn’t throw the ball.
We will continue to blow under Mark.
Like I told my woman at lunch today. When Mark Walters bought the Dodgers he brought in the architect of the Braves 90 teams then paid big money to get the Devil Rays GM here.
For all the mess they get about “buying” players, they scout, draft, develop players & they are amongst the best in MLB. They’re getting HOF players to sign with them cuz they see the young talent/development & you know what they didn’t do? Make Orel Hershiser their GM
Disaster if Crosby is traded. Trade Meyers and utilize Bech and Thornton. Start Kenny Pickett and at least make this clown show entertaining. Today’s game was pathetic. No energy, bad tackling, more interceptions and the OL was destroyed. Maybe a more mobile Pickett would have better luck.
Thornton hasn’t done squat. He should be getting maybe two snaps a game at this point.
The players are definitely not buying what Carroll is selling, might as well get rid of any assets we can and tank for a qb next year. Unfortunately I have little faith in our current coaching and front office to turn any draft picks into meaningful players.
Disagree. I will say that in the fourth quarter of this game, they didn’t buy into effort. Pretty sure they aren’t buying into Geno Smith either.
I like Jakobi. But not for 20+ per.
Crosby hasn’t Been anywhere near the player that he has in the past. If this sporadic all in is what we’re gonna see from him now, if you can get two first round picks and a player, do it. You just better parlay those picks into a franchise quarterback.
The ST coach should be fired. I can’t believe there hasn’t been designated players on
Punts and field goals to account for blitzers.
We have the worst special teams in the NFL by far.
This team is for sh#t!! I said it from the start, old school coaching is not the answer. It’s called a team for a reason. Grown men can’t come together and play for the team, the hell with the coaches then hell yeah there’s a problem.
You never trade Crosby if you do your nuts!!!!
Yeah, if they trade Maxx, they might be a really bad football team!
Ok, I’m being a facetious, but Maxx has been one of the best players in the NFL for 5+ years and the Raiders have been awful in almost all of them. While the answer to getting better on the field is increasing the talent on the roster, not decreasing it, you have to start looking at timelines. The Raiders went 4-13 last year. This year has shown they weren’t just a QB away even if the QB has been awful. They have no young QB to develop. So, you start to ask, how long would it be to turn this team into a winner (of course, there’s no proof this front office is even capable of building a winner)? How old is Maxx at that point? Is he still as good? Or would they be better off using him to acquire players who might be part of the next good Raider roster? I don’t think there is an easy answer, but it’s not crazy to trade him. Just like it wasn’t crazy to trade Mack (but using the return drafting a RB and box safety who couldn’t tackle was!), even though Mack was a future HOFer in his prime.
The Mack trade was terrible for the organization. Set us back 5 years. If the compensation for M.Crosby isn’t 2-1st,2-2nds,3-3rds,3-4ths and a couple of 5ths then I’m not selling him. J.Meyers should be able to get a 4th from somebody as his value hasn’t gone down since last off-season. He seems to be playing not to get hurt anyway and any compensatory pick would be another away and might not even be there since the FO is ran by a bunch of morons. Case in point they signed E.Roberts to a 1-3 mill deal but that transactions will cost the team a 5th in next year’s draft.
Trade them both. Stack draft picks for a proper rebuild. Maxx deserves to win a Super Bowl and Jakobi isn’t going to be around after this year anyway. We have too many holes to fill so stack the draft picks while you can.
they make more money with a **** team.
havent done anything in years and the teams value has more than tripled
come to vegas, have fun with the family and see your favorite nfl team beat the raiders.
When the owner will give a former non Raider QB a discount to buy part of the team and then let that former QB run the organization but then won’t pay top dollar to build the best coaching staff that’s when we get an old man that hasn’t produced a good team let alone a great team in a very long time. Should’ve been Ben Johnson and Robert Salah. Build from the trenches and not a diminutive RB and a mediocre at best 35 yr old QB.