The trade that wasn't: Inside the Maxx Crosby saga between the Raiders, Ravens

MAXX CROSBY'S 48 hours in Maryland were a whirlwind.

The All-Pro edge rusher arrived in Charm City on Monday, March 9, three days after the Las Vegas Raiders agreed to a monumental deal with the Baltimore Ravens for two first-round picks in exchange for Crosby. A move that seemed uncharacteristic for everyone involved would've ended Crosby's tenure with the Raiders after seven seasons.

But suddenly, everything came undone.

After Crosby went through physicals and MRIs on Tuesday, he was delivered the shocking news that Baltimore had nixed the trade agreement with Las Vegas because of medical concerns. The thought of Crosby joining a Super Bowl contender had been wiped away, and he returned to Las Vegas bewildered by what had transpired.

Sources with the Raiders and those close to Crosby are skeptical that his medical state was the sole motive for the trade reversal, given the timing and that Baltimore had a full understanding of the injury before the trade.

"They had access to imaging and the doctors' reports on it," a source with direct knowledge of the situation told ESPN.

So how did things turn so quickly? What transpired between the surprising trade news breaking on Friday and the deal being nixed four days later? We talked to people with knowledge of the situation to find out what really went down between Baltimore, Las Vegas and one of the league's most talented edge rushers.

"No one will ever admit what the real truth is," Crosby said in his latest podcast episode of "The Rush."

LAST MARCH, CROSBY signed a three-year, $106.5 million contract extension, making him one of the highest-paid non-quarterbacks in NFL history. It was a move that general manager John Spytek said at the time was meant to set the tone for a "new era of Raiders football."

"I can't think of a better person to sit up here with and reward for what he's done, but with an expectation of what's coming," Spytek said. "... When people like Maxx, I mean, it's no secret, it hasn't been sunshine and roses around here forever, but when he makes a commitment to the Raiders like this, and he stands for everything [former] coach [Pete Carroll] and I and this new staff, and everybody talks about, he signs up for it."

But Crosby's loyalty had been pushed. As a Raider, the 29-year-old played for four head coaches, four general managers and nine starting quarterbacks. For every new regime, Crosby was tasked with being the heartbeat of the organization, setting the culture and even assisting in recruiting free agents.

Though he didn't make it public, Crosby let it be known behind the scenes this offseason that he no longer wanted to play for the Raiders, and a split seemed inevitable. More than anything, he wanted to win at the highest level. Amid the organization's constant turnover and dysfunction, Crosby made only one postseason appearance and endured five losing seasons, including a 3-14 record in 2025 that led to Carroll's firing on Jan. 5.

"The titles and all that stuff [are] amazing, but I truly just want to win," Crosby had said after signing his contract extension with Las Vegas last March. "When we're not winning, it's like, what are you the face of? I want to be the face of winning, and that's truly all that matters to me."

Crosby finished last season with a team-high 10 sacks, despite dealing with a left knee injury, which he sustained in a Week 7 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. Crosby kept playing in games while enduring through the injury before the team put him on the injured reserve list ahead of its Week 17 game with the No. 1 pick in the 2026 draft on the line.

It was a decision that left Crosby frustrated on Dec. 26, and some of his teammates surprised. Crosby was aware that offseason knee surgery was needed, but he had played through pain before, so why not now?

"I was kind of surprised. I've seen Maxx play through a lot of injuries, so it's always surprising when he's out," Raiders edge rusher Malcolm Koonce told ESPN. "He's always been like that since my rookie year. He's always been a leader."

Despite facing knee, shoulder, hand and ankle injuries across his seven NFL seasons and having eight surgeries, Crosby has played in 110 career games (104 starts), sitting out only seven games. Since entering the league, Crosby has collected 69.5 sacks -- the third most in Raiders history -- and 360 quarterback pressures, 29 more than the next-closest player (Cleveland's Myles Garrett), per ESPN Research.

"That's why you wish the wins were stacking up for him," said former Raiders defensive coordinator Patrick Graham, who was hired by the Pittsburgh Steelers this offseason for the same role.

Crosby underwent meniscus repair surgery Jan. 7 and vowed to be "more than ready" for training camp. The question was whether he would be in a Raiders uniform.

Spytek, new head coach Klint Kubiak and owner Mark Davis all said at various points of the offseason that they expected Crosby to suit up for Las Vegas in 2026. "Maxx is an elite player, and I've been very upfront from the start when I got here that we're in the business of having really good players on the team, and we need a lot more of them," Spytek said at the NFL combine in February.

At the same time, Spytek didn't say Crosby was untradeable. Las Vegas didn't want to move Crosby unless it was an offer it couldn't refuse. For the Raiders to part ways with their franchise cornerstone, they needed an offer that included multiple first-round picks, similar to the trade of Micah Parsons from Dallas to Green Bay last August.

The Ravens, surprisingly, came knocking.

IN THE RAVENS' 31-year franchise history, they have never used a first-round pick to trade for a veteran player.

But during the team's 8-9 season in 2025, the Ravens struggled to pressure the quarterback. Baltimore ranked 28th in pass rush win rate (29.9%) and 30th in sacks (30). Baltimore GM Eric DeCosta said he believed Crosby, one of the league's most decorated edge rushers, "was born to be a Raven" and would be an immediate fix to a glaring problem on defense.

Talks between the Ravens and the Raiders had intensified on March 5, with Crosby's side kept in the loop throughout the process. The next night, Crosby got word that Baltimore agreed to meet the Raiders' requirement of two first-round picks.

But the deal was contingent on Crosby passing a physical before the trade could be made official at the start of the new league year March 11.

Baltimore beat out the Dallas Cowboys, who were also seeking an elite pass rusher. Initial offers centered on Dallas' second first-round pick at No. 20, and defensive tackle Osa Odighizuwa. The Cowboys then offered their top first-rounder at No. 12 and a third-round pick. Ultimately, the Cowboys moved to No. 12 and their second-round pick, but the last two offers, sources said, did not include Odighizuwa, who was traded to the San Francisco 49ers for a third-round selection.

In this affable split between the Raiders and Crosby, both sides appeared to have been winners. Crosby was joining a better team that gave him a chance to play meaningful football in January. The Ravens have made the postseason in six of their past eight seasons, including an AFC Championship Game appearance in 2023. The last time the Raiders played in a conference title game was in 2002.

Las Vegas, meanwhile, obtained the resources to begin its rebuilding process in earnest. At the time the trade was agreed to, the Raiders had four first-round picks over the next two seasons. They were set to be one of five teams with two first-round picks in 2026.

On March 9, Crosby said he was flown to Washington, D.C. and then drove to Baltimore, with great excitement about his new journey.

"I want [the Raiders] to have all the success in the world," Crosby said during an emotional farewell video he posted on his social media accounts March 7, which has since been removed.

CROSBY'S KNEE WAS a concern that was discussed between the Ravens and Raiders before the trade, according to league sources. Crosby was more than a month removed from knee surgery and began walking without crutches on Feb. 27.

Crosby said on his podcast that he spent March 10 undergoing physicals and getting an MRI. But he said he didn't get a chance to meet with Ravens coach Jesse Minter and DeCosta until around 5 p.m. ET, which caught him by surprise.

"I thought I was going to see [DeCosta] when I first got there. I don't know why. I'm not going to speculate," Crosby recalled. "He just made the trade, and I didn't see him for five hours."

During Crosby's eventual meeting with Minter and DeCosta, he said the energy felt off. He then grew terrified after DeCosta informed him that one of the doctors had concerns about his knee, and they wanted to get additional opinions.

In addition to their own doctors, the Ravens had a handful of doctors outside the organization weigh in on Crosby's knee, including Dan Cooper, a renowned knee specialist and the Cowboys' team doctor. In the past, Dallas has leaned on Cooper's expertise in making decisions such as drafting Jaylon Smith in the second round in 2016, despite torn ligaments and nerve damage, and drafting Shavon Revel Jr. last year in the third round despite a torn ACL.

But Cooper was not the primary voice in determining whether Baltimore should back out of the deal.

The consensus was that Crosby would be able to play in 2026. The Ravens' concern centered on the uncertainty of Crosby's durability after a couple of seasons in Baltimore because of a degenerative issue in his knee, a source told ESPN.

Crosby went back to his hotel Tuesday night and called his surgeon, Dr. Neal ElAttrache, who reassured him that he was fine and making significant progress in his rehab. ElAttrache shared a similar sentiment with ESPN's Adam Schefter.

"Maxx Crosby is doing very well in the early part of his rehab and recovery from surgery to treat a significant meniscus tear and the related stress injury to the bone and cartilage in his knee," ElAttrache told Schefter. "He is certainly on track in his planned program. ... He feels very well and is already much improved compared to before surgery."

Multiple sources with direct knowledge of the situation believed the Raiders and Crosby's representatives were transparent about the injury throughout the trade process and that Baltimore had done extensive research on Crosby's recovery and timeline during that time.

"[The Ravens] had a lot of information at their disposal and still green-lit the trade," one of the sources said. "They did enough legwork that should have eliminated some of the concern."

Teams often share pertinent medical information -- including MRIs -- when it comes to processing a trade, assuming permission is granted, one of the sources added.

Crosby's agents, CJ LaBoy and Doug Hendrickson, told him after the meeting with Minter and DeCosta that they believed Baltimore would nix the trade, Crosby said. Despite his agents' uncertainty about the trade being finalized, Crosby said a Ravens staff member called him after getting off the phone with his agents and said the team planned to get the deal done.

Crosby said five minutes after his call with the staffer, he was informed by LaBoy that Baltimore had called off the deal.

A "livid" and "confused" Crosby boarded a private plane back to Las Vegas while the trade reversal news broke publicly around 8 p.m. ET on March 10.

"We've done a lot of different trades. One of the key things is you bring the player in and try to get as much information as you can," DeCosta told reporters the following day. "We did that, and we were not able to complete the process of acquiring the player based on our assessment of the situation."

DECOSTA DIDN'T GIVE specifics about why the Ravens backed out of the monumental deal, but he said he believed it was the best decision for the franchise moving forward.

"Nobody's more upset about this than me -- gutted by it, actually," he said on March 11. "And so a regret, a big regret for me, but we will move on as a football team."

But it didn't take long for the Ravens to pivot.

Thirteen hours after ESPN reported the Crosby deal was nixed, sources told Schefter that Baltimore agreed to a deal with former Cincinnati Bengals edge rusher Trey Hendrickson for four years, $112 million, which included $60 million guaranteed and a $20 million signing bonus.

This created suspicion about whether Crosby's knee was truly the issue for Baltimore, but DeCosta insisted the two decisions between moving on from Crosby and signing Hendrickson were "mutually exclusive." Two executives from other teams told ESPN that they were somewhat skeptical of DeCosta's statement. As one NFC executive put it, "I think the truth is somewhere in between," making clear that only Baltimore knows the details of the physical.

While Crosby was at the Ravens facility March 10 and not interacting with the team's top brass for most of the day, DeCosta acknowledged that the team also spoke with Hendrickson that day. DeCosta added that the team's interest in Hendrickson developed after three-time Pro Bowl center Tyler Linderbaum reached an agreement on a record-breaking three-year, $81 million deal with the Raiders on March 9. Linderbaum had spent four seasons with the Ravens.

A source said the Ravens had offered Linderbaum a four-year, $88 million deal. When the 25-year-old interior lineman decided to go to Las Vegas, Baltimore thought it could commit the money meant for Linderbaum to another elite pass rusher to potentially pair with Crosby.

"We started some discussions with him and his agent, thinking that potentially we'd have two pass rushers on the defensive line on both sides of the line," DeCosta said. "That was definitely a possibility for us."

Initially, the Ravens, like the other teams that were talking to Hendrickson, were hesitant to meet his desired contract price of a long-term deal worth $40 million a year. Hendrickson, 31, underwent core muscle surgery in December, which is why teams were reluctant to give him a three- or four-year deal.

When no deal materialized for Hendrickson during the negotiating period that began at noon ET on March 9, interested teams received word that his desired contract price had dropped. Once Baltimore decided on March 10 not to move ahead with the Crosby deal, it improved its offer to the point that Hendrickson would accept it.

"We felt like this was a year to take a big swing," DeCosta said. "We saw some players that we thought could impact us, [with] Trey being one of the main guys."

At the same time, the GM pushed back on the narrative that the Ravens got cold feet on the Crosby trade and said voiding the trade hasn't negatively affected his relationship with other teams and agents.

"It hasn't stopped my phone from ringing; I'll tell you that," DeCosta said on March 11.

THE FEELING INSIDE the Raiders' building after Spytek received the news from Baltimore was one of surprise but not anger. According to a team source, Spytek calmly told members of the front office, "Hey, so the Ravens backed out of the deal,'' and then explained the reasoning behind the decision. But the move didn't dampen the mood of Davis and the rest of the organization.

Las Vegas' decision-makers gathered Tuesday night after the news broke to discuss the impact Baltimore's decision would have on offseason plans and whether the Raiders could still move ahead with the free agent agreements they made now that Crosby's $35.8 million cap hit was back on their books.

Ultimately, Las Vegas honored the commitments it made with more than seven free agents and fulfilled a trade to acquire slot cornerback Taron Johnson from the Buffalo Bills.

Crosby returned to the facility March 11 and was welcomed with open arms by staff and teammates. He has since expressed his commitment to the Raiders both within the building and publicly.

"I am where I'm supposed to be," Crosby said.

The Raiders might have reconsidered signing both Koonce and Paye had they known the Crosby trade would be reversed, a team source acknowledged. But now, the Raiders have a strong edge rusher group with Crosby back in the picture.

"I don't think anybody was like, 'F those guys,'" a team source said of any animosity toward Baltimore. "If the worst case is you get an All-Pro back in the building, that's not a bad thing."

A source familiar with the Raiders' thinking said the bigger issue is their approach to April's draft now that they no longer hold the No. 14 pick in addition to the top draft choice. The plan remains to draft former Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza at No. 1, but whatever plans they had brewing with the second Day 1 pick might now need to be addressed via trade or another signing.

"We've got to be super honest with where we're at, and we've got a lot of needs to address, and we've got a lot of capital to do it," Spytek said at the combine.

CROSBY BADLY WANTED to play for a winner, was told he could, then watched that opportunity be snatched away from him in the blink of an eye. Sitting inside the same studio where he issued a farewell video to the Raiders, Crosby said in his most recent podcast that he might never know the truth behind Baltimore's decision to back out of the deal.

But he says he believes his confusing time on the East Coast was a reminder that he's meant to be in Las Vegas. In the past, Crosby constantly expressed his loyalty to the Raiders, but that didn't stop him from nearly becoming a Raven.

Teams continue to check in on his availability, but as of now, the Raiders' asking price to trade Crosby's contract remains high. And given what has happened, teams are hesitant to meet it, a league source said. Multiple Raiders sources say they'd be surprised if Crosby was traded in the short term. Perhaps a window of opportunity opens closer to the draft, but the team is certainly keeping an open mind on retaining him.

When the Ravens backed out of the trade, Dallas contemplated getting back into the chase. Although the Cowboys did not 100% close the door on a Crosby trade, a source said they were not reengaging in talks.

The Raiders will begin the 2026 season with a rookie quarterback and a first-time head coach, offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator. Will this team be better than last season's group that went 3-14 under Carroll and former quarterback Geno Smith? To some degree, yes, after addressing areas of need in free agency. Still, the Raiders have a good amount of roster holes to fill, and the question of whether Mendoza can successfully transition to the NFL in Year 1 looms large.

With that said, Crosby could again see himself at the center of trade talks when the deadline comes in November. If Crosby is playing at a high level, but Las Vegas is struggling, a contending team could entertain the idea of acquiring him to help make a deep playoff push.

For now, he's a Raider.

"I'm here. I'm meant to be a Raider," Crosby said on his podcast. "... I'm in this s--- for life until that changes, which I don't foresee, but you never know in this damn league."

ESPN's Dan Graziano, Jeremy Fowler, Jamison Hensley and Todd Archer contributed to this report.