The Las Vegas Raiders received some stunning bad news on the trade front today with the announcement that the Baltimore Ravens are backing out of the Maxx Crosby trade, which was made last week and sent the defensive end to Baltimore for a pair of first round picks.
The news was posted on ESPN with a top-of-site, “Breaking News” note from Adam Schefter, while PFT and The Athletic posted short notes about it. A tweet from Diana Russini said Crosby didn’t pass his physical, and the Raiders get their first-round picks back.
Meanwhile, the Raiders posted this note on the team’s Twitter account:
“The Baltimore Ravens have backed out of our trade agreement for Maxx Crosby. We will have no further comment at this time.”
According to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, “No trade is done until it’s done. For all trades, both teams must independently communicate the trade to the league office. Either team can step aside, with no consequence.”
Florio also added that for trades done in advance of the league year, both teams have time to change their minds, which is apparently what happened with Baltimore in this deal.
If the Ravens are indeed backing out due to medical issues related to Crosby’s physical, this likely dates back to late last season, when the Raiders shut Crosby down due to issues with his balky knees. Crosby insisted he was fine, although he did post pictures on his socials of himself lying in a hospital bed after a surgical procedure.
Since then, Crosby has sworn he’ll have nothing to do with the Raiders again, although subsequent efforts were made to repair the relationship. These included conversations between Crosby and owner Mark Davis, minority owner Tom Brady, GM John Spytek and new coach Klint Kubiak. Details have since surfaced about Crosby’s apparently fractured relationship with the team, with all parties agreeing to move on and do a trade.
The fate of the draft picks seems clear, but this seems to leave Crosby in limbo, stuck between his old team that may no longer want him and his hypothetical new team that may not want him because of possible medical issues.
It also raises questions about all the moves the Raider made in free agency, with the team using a huge chunk of its $100 million-plus in salary cap money on several free agents who may or may not have been signed if Las Vegas had known Crosby was possibly boomeranging back to the team.
The upshot: It’s an unholy mess that awaits a LOT of clarification.