Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby has been quiet lately, but that could be about to end.
Bad teams don’t usually provide bulletin board material in the NFL, but apparenlty Miami Dolphins left tackle Patrick Paul missed the memo as the Fins prepare to play the Las Vegas Raiders in their opener on Sunday.
Paul is one lineman who's chirping in the runup to this game, as the tackle called Crosby a “hothead,” according to a report from Josh Alper of Pro Football Talk.
There’s a bit of a backstory here, so let’s review. This situation dates back to 2024 when the Dolphins hosted the Raiders, when an unnecessary roughness penalty against Crosby set up an early touchdown for Miami. The penalty occurred against Dolphins guard Liam Eichenberg, who’s no longer in the NFL, as Alper noted.
Eichenberg said that Crosby is “easy to aggravate,” and apparently the Dolphins are using that prospective footnote as part of their game planning, as Paul went off on Mad Maxx when he discussed the possible value of trash talking.
“I feel like, yeah, he’s a hothead,” Paul said, via David Furones of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. “A lot of those things you could get into his game with that, but, I mean, he’s a great player so you just gotta stay on it all four quarters.”
This sort of thing is usually low-hanging fruit for Crosby, who likes to get into verbal battles almost as much as he values physical confrontations on the field. With four days to fire back, it’ll be interesting to see if Crosby does one of his typical “ready, fire, aim” sequences in the back-and-forth.
The not-so-random variable here is new coach Klint Kubiak, who’s been keeping things quiet and low-key during training camp. Kubiak has done a solid job of tamping down prospective storylines that could get controversial, and Crosby has been part of that effort.
There’s backstory here, too, that dates back to a training camp practice incident when Crosby hit veteran quarterback Kirk Cousins in the arm even though Cousins was wearing a non-contact jersey.
That got both players parked for the next practice, and Crosby has been uncharacteristically quiet since, although he did take a quick sideswipe at Kubiak during an on-field interview during the Raiders’ preseason game against the Houston Texans when he said the coach didn’t have a “big personality.”
Kubiak has carried a big stick behind the scenes, however, so it will be interesting to see how Crosby will respond and how far he’s allowed to go.
