The Chargers desperately need edge rush, and a superstar defender might be available. Could Crosby be the answer?
The Las Vegas Raiders are rebuilding. After a single season under Pete Carroll, they let him go and brought in Klint Kubiak from the Seattle Seahawks to be their new head coach. They have the #1 overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft and it sounds like they're planning on using it on Fernando Mendoza, fresh off leading the Indiana Hoosiers to the college football championship.
When your team is stuck in a situation where it knows it's going to be bad for the next couple of years, the smart thing to do is to turn today's assets into a brighter future. For the Raiders, that would mean trading Maxx Crosby (who is the Raiders' highest-paid player and on their longest contract) to the highest bidder.
Trading Crosby to a contender is not only the upstanding thing to do, it will save the Raiders about $30 million in cap space next season. That would present them with an opportunity to take a worse player/contract in trade for more early draft picks to build their next team with.
ESPN's NFL analysts were factoring all of this in when they came up with four realistic trade offers that could be made to the Raiders in exchange for Crosby. One of their offers was from the Los Angeles Chargers, and I think we should talk about it.
Seth Walder's offer:
- Raiders get: 2026 second-round pick (No. 55 overall), 2026 sixth-round pick, 2027 fifth-round pick
- Chargers get: Crosby
I've been writing about the lack of edge rushers around the NFL and how that will impact the Chargers and free agency, where they are set to potentially lose both Khalil Mack and Odafe Oweh.
Crosby is a different player than both of those guys, and arguably playing a different position, but he's also a superstar level sack machine that can replace either of them in the Chargers pass rush production. Also, there's a pretty good chance that he'll end up being cheaper this year than the combined salaries of Mack and Oweh.
Trading for Maxx Crosby, even if it ends up costing a few non-1st round draft picks, would be a pretty good backup plan if the team decides against putting the franchise tag on Oweh (and can't sign him in free agency).
As far as the whole "Don't trade inside your own divisional, especially to a rival" dynamic, I think there's a time and a place for it. I don't think that's now. The Raiders don't have much use for their talented player that will be be 30 years old soon. The Chargers could definitely use him, and he'll likely be past his current contract the next time the Raiders are competitive.