There’s a game of chess crossed with chicken being played as the NFL draft approaches, and it pits the Las Vegas Raiders against the rest of the league. Everyone knows star defensive end Maxx Crosby is on the market, and the Raiders want to maximize what they get back if they do decide to go there and trade Crosby.
The asking price is now two first-round picks and a quality player for Crosby, according to a league source via a report from Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk. The specific goal here for the Raiders is to duplicate what the Dallas Cowboys got back when they traded star edge rusher Micah Parsons, with defensive tackle Kenny Clark being the player the Cowboys got back in addition to those picks.
The Raiders haven’t been specific about the player ask, but that’s part of the game here. As Florio noted, presumably it’s a starting-caliber contributor, but the basic goal is find the dumbest, most desperate team that’s willing to overpay to get Crosby and/or Mendoza.
Florio also noted that the position of the draft picks will play a role here. Teams drafting near the end of the first round are more likely to give up their picks, but there’s no hard-and-fast rule that applies here.
Meanwhile, the Raiders have started talking up quarterback Fernando Mendoza, who’s the top-rated QB this year by a lot. New coach Klint Kubiak hasn’t said much about Mendoza’s specific skill set to date, but Pro Football Focus recently rated Mendoza as a “solid NFL starter,” so Kubiak is focused on winning.
“Excited to keep learning about him and it’s not just me, it’s our entire coaching staff,” Kubiak said, via the team’s website in a separate piece written by Josh Alper of PFT. “I want all of our coaches to get involved, especially at that position. I want everybody’s input, but obviously he’s been successful. He had a lot of success last year. He won a national championship and that’s what you want. You want a winner.”
Crosby and Mendoza are now inextricably linked going forward, and the noise about both players will increase exponentially as draft day approaches. That’s part of the game, with the goal of making potential acquiring teams so desperate that they’ll do nearly anything to get the players and the publicity that comes with "winning the draft" at this time of year.
All of this might seem borderline nonsensical from a common sense perspective, but this is how things are done in the NFL. Everyone knows that most rookie quarterbacks fail initially, sometimes badly, and sometimes this has little or nothing to do with where they’re drafted. The entire process is a messy crapshoot, but that won’t stop the Raiders from playing their hand to the hilt.