lAfter months of rumors, speculation, and internal arguments, the Las Vegas Raiders have officially decided to move on from their star pass rusher, Maxx Crosby. The Raiders traded the five-time Pro Bowler to the Baltimore Ravens on Friday for 2026 and 2027 first-round picks, giving them both the first and fourteenth overall picks in this year’s NFL Draft.
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Even though recent reports suggested that he was frustrated by the team’s lack of competitiveness, as well as the over-involvement of the team’s wellness coordinator, Alex Guerrero, Crosby himself always maintained that he was willing to remain with the Raiders. Despite him now being a Raven, that hasn’t changed.
“My heart was in the right place, and I never will regret that,” Crosby noted in his most recent YouTube video, which was simply titled “Thank You.” “I wanted everything good for the Raiders. I bleed silver and black, that will never change, and I’m a Raider for life.”
His words may not provide much comfort to the Las Vegas fan base, and that’s to be expected. After all, Crosby was one of the most celebrated defenders that they had seen since the departure of Charles Woodson.
Thankfully, they can at least find some solace in his assertion that “I truly want to finish, when it’s all said and done, in a Raiders jersey.” There’s also the fact that the Raiders’ 2026 regular season schedule is free of the Ravens, so fans won’t have to worry about a potential grudge much anytime soon, either.
Clearly excited by the opportunity to join a championship contender, he was quick to note that “I’m going there with one purpose, and that’s to help this team get to where, ultimately, it needs to be, where everybody wants to go, and that’s winning a Super Bowl.” Although much of his video was simply geared towards saying both “thank you” and “goodbye” to his now-former team of seven years.
“I can’t believe that this is a real thing,” he started. “Raiders Nation has given me everything… One thing I can say, above all else, is that I gave y’all everything that I got and I have no regrets about that. I put everything into trying to win as a Raider… I feel like I left everything I had on the table for this team. I’ve given my heart and soul, and I feel like I let y’all down.”
For better or worse, Crosby’s time in Las Vegas will have produced nothing more than a single playoff appearance and zero postseason wins. So while it’s never fun to see an old friend leave, perhaps this trade was for the best, as it gives the Raiders that much more draft capital to jump-start their rebuild.
In other words, it’s a necessary evil, and the only regret that the franchise may likely have will come in the form of wishing that Crosby was in the building to experience the better days that surely lie ahead with Fernando Mendoza.
