A collapsed deal for Maxx Crosby triggered a draft-day domino effect, allowing Tampa Bay to snatch elite edge rusher Rueben Bain after Baltimore pivoted to offensive line.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have the Las Vegas Raiders to thank for one of the Super Bowl wins, and now, have a failed trade the Raiders were involved in to thank for the team drafting Miami edge Rueben Bain Jr. in the first round.
The Raiders, then based in Oakland, helped the Bucs win their first Super Bowl by trading their head coach, Jon Gruden, to Tampa, and then keeping most of Gruden's staff intact.
So when the teams met in the big game, Gruden knew what plays were coming, and the Bucs won.
More than 23 years later, the Raiders helped the Bucs again, and it all goes back to a failed trade.
Had the Raiders traded away their star defensive end, Maxx Crosby, to the Baltimore Ravens, the Ravens would have sent the No. 14 overall pick to Vegas.
This deal not only almost happened, but it did happen, and then the Ravens backed out of it due to concerns about Crosby's health.
It's hard to know what may have happened had this trade gone through, but it's easy to believe that the Raiders, needing to replace their star edge rusher and having already addressed their offense by taking QB Fernando Mendoza with the first overall pick, would have wanted to take an edge at No. 14, and Bain was the best one available.
Edge was also a position of need for the Ravens, who took one in the second round (Missouri's Zion Young).
But Baltimore, having pivoted from Crosby to Trey Hendrickson, who it signed to a four-year, $112 deal, decided to focus on the offensive line, proving many mock drafts right by taking Penn State guard Vega Ioane.
Vegas addressed its offensive line in a big way by signing center Tyler Linderbaum, who, ironically enough, starred with the Ravens before, to a three-year, $81 million contract.
In an interview on the Pat McAfee show Tuesday afternoon, Buccaneers general manager Jason Licht suggested that the Crosby trade falling through helped the Bucs.
“And then, you know, Crosby goes back to the Raiders, then the Ravens are sitting there again with their pick, and I know they love their edge rushers, too, so that had me nervous," Licht said. "They took Vega, which is an awesome pick, you know, they need offensive linemen. Maybe the Raiders' signing of Linderbaum helped us get Rueben. We’re all trying to help each other out here, especially the people that are good friends, so thanks, Spytek.”
"Spytek" is Raiders general manager John Spytek, and he and Licht are friends because they worked together for almost a decade.
Spytek worked in the Tampa front office with Licht from 2016-2024, being the Director of Player Personnel (2016-2020), Vice President of Player Personnel (2021-2022) and assistant general manager (2023-2024) before being hired by Las Vegas.
In other edge rusher-related news, Licht confirmed that the Bucs were "in a little bit" on Hendrickson, who was linked to Tampa due to growing up in Florida, but there was little aside from that that suggested Hendrickson to the Bucs was a serious possibility.
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