The Las Vegas Raiders agreed to send star defensive end Maxx Crosby to the Baltimore Ravens for two first-round picks, but the Ravens backed out of the deal last second.
Nobody expected the Baltimore Ravens to back out of its trade that would have made Las Vegas Raiders star defensive end Maxx Crosby a Raven, but a failed physical got in the way of the league-altering move.
But what went down after the trade was agreed upon? Crosby spoke about the fallout of the trade and what happened upon his arrival.
Crosby said that the Ravens flew him into Washington, D.C. and had him drive to Baltimore instead of getting him straight there. He had to drive two hours to Baltimore after a five-hour flight, which upset him for obvious reasons.
And then, once he got there, Crosby wanted to meet with head coach Jesse Minter to talk football and get to know him a little bit. But he didn’t see him until the end of the day and also didn’t see general manager Eric DeCosta during the visit.
“I didn’t see the GM at all,” Crosby said on The Rush with Maxx. “I’m not going to speculate, but I didn’t see him one time. I even asked the girl, ‘where’s Eric at? I wanna see him.’”
At the end of his visit, he finally went and saw Minter and DeCosta, but the vibes were off. Crosby was excited to be there and for this new opportunity, but when he shook hands with Minter, his expression was blank. Crosby wasn’t sure if it was just because they hadn’t met before, but he thought the energy was weird.
When he finally met with GM DeCosta in the next room, Crosby was told that Baltimore’s medical staff had concerns about his knee and that while they wanted him on the team, the organization needed more opinions.
Deep down, Crosby said he was terrified that something was wrong. He was confused by what was going on but kept it together. The Ravens told him that they would get back to him after hearing more opinions and when Crosby left, he was in disbelief.
Crosby then received a call from his surgeon, Neal ElAttrache, M.D., who told him not to listen to anything the Ravens were saying about his knee.
“Maxx, don’t listen to any of that (expletive),” Crosby recalled what ElAttrache said. “Your knee is great, you’re exactly where you’re supposed to be or even ahead of schedule. You’re doing everything right, they know you had your surgery nine weeks ago.”
ElAttrache put Crosby’s mind at ease. However, his camp believed that Baltimore would pull out of the deal. A member of the Ravens called and said they would get a deal done, but five minutes later, Crosby’s agent called and confirmed Baltimore was backing out.
“No one will ever admit what the real truth is,” Crosby said. “Ultimately, it doesn’t matter. I am where I’m supposed to be.”
The new league year hadn’t started, so the deal didn’t go through. It’s a bad look for the Ravens, but Crosby is at peace with it and is happy to be in Las Vegas.