Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby had been quiet in the 24 hours after the trade that would have sent him to the Ravens fell apart.
He has finally spoken.
“Everything Happens For A Reason,” Crosby tweeted on Wednesday night. “Believe Nothing You Hear & Half Of What You See. I’m A Raider. I’m Back. Run That Sh*t.”
It’s a far cry from his desire to leave after the team shut him down late in the 2025 regular season, due to a knee injury on which he’d played for most of the year. Maybe the failed trade to the Ravens prompted an epiphany. Maybe he realizes, based on the failure of his physical, that the Raiders were trying to protect him from himself by getting him to stop putting pressure and stress on a knee that he possibly made worse by insisting on continuing to play.
Regardless, Crosby now says he’s committed to staying. Whether that prompts other teams to stop trying to work a trade — and whether it gets the Raiders to hang up the phone when someone calls — is a different question.
The best play for now will be to focus on getting healthy. The Ravens had concerns, enough to get them not to proceed with giving up a pair of first-round picks for Crosby. That should give him extra motivation.
Coupled with the improvements to the roster in free agency and the likely arrival of quarterback Fernando Mendoza with the first overall pick in the draft, who knows? Maybe the Raiders will be undergoing a revival.
However it goes, Crosby clearly will be giving everything he has to making it happen.
