Ravens’ Credibility Called into Question After Backing Out of Maxx Crosby Trade

The Ravens backed out of a verbally agreed to trade with the Raiders regarding future Hall of Fame pass rusher Maxx Crosby Tuesday night, citing a failed physical designation that drew immediate skepticism throughout the league and within the agent community.

The teams agreed to the deal last week, and with Crosby dealing with a knee injury late last season, one he badly wanted to play through, the Ravens had ample time to send medical people to see the player or have further testing done prior to Crosby’s arrival in Baltimore Tuesday. 

Since agreeing to trade a first-round pick for the player for the first time in franchise history (they had agreed to send two to the Raiders in this deal), the Ravens lost a large chunk of their roster to other teams in free agency, they are still struggling to sign Lamar Jackson to a contract extension that is vital to creating more cap flexibility in the coming years and many in the industry believe they agreed to pay too steep a price for a 29-year old pass rusher. 

That led multiple general managers to tell me they had extreme difficulty buying that this trade was scuttled over a serious medical concern, and they believe it had much more to do with Baltimore desperately needing those top draft picks to try to fill some of the massive voids to their roster.

Teams can fudge physical results to go in various directions, and in a sport as violent as football, and for a player who has been in the league as long as Crosby, there are always potential medical red flags. 

But the timing of the trade being called off irked the Raiders, according to multiple league sources, came as a shock to Crosby and his representatives and could severely damage the ability of Ravens embattled and struggling general manager, Eric DeCosta, to do business in the future. 

Are GMs buying what the Ravens are selling? 

“I’m not buying that this is a medical thing,” said one general manager who was also involved in discussions regarding Crosby. 

“I don’t think too many of us (general managers) are going to buy that. I think DeCosta was looking at his roster and he’s scared as shit. He’s pissed at the Raiders for the contract they gave (former Ravens star center Tyler) Linderbaum, and he’s losing all his free agents and he wants those picks back… I’m telling you, I don’t think this is about the medical. DeCosta is going to have real problems now. How can you trust him? How do you do a deal with him after this? This is really bad. And the Raiders are really screwed.”

The Raiders made a bevy of moves themselves, with Crosby and his big salary and cap hit set to come off their books when the NFL league year opens on Wednesday. 

Baltimore withdrawing from the transaction has major and immediate ramifications for them. 

It is hard to believe that Crosby won’t be passing a physical for some team next season, while the Ravens, through backchannels in the media, were trying to make the case the Raiders were not being candid enough about Crosby’s medicals. We’ll see in the coming days what the rest of the market thinks of Crosby’s health. 

“This smells like bullshit to me,” said another general manager who was keeping tabs on Crosby. 

“You do a trade of this magnitude, with the player missing time at the end of the season, you can get ahead of all of that and ask for more imaging and get your hands on that stuff sooner if you have any concerns. I think DeCosta got cold feet. Crosby’s agents know that he loves his picks and his comp picks more than anything else. Those guys had to know they’d better be careful with a team like that, doing a deal five or six days before the start of the league year or whatever it was. You can always hide behind a physical if you want to get out of something.”

A longtime NFL personnel executive said: “DeCosta saw all the negative press he was getting and he’s worried he gave up too much for an older pass rusher. His roster is getting picked apart. I hear he’s having trouble getting Lamar to answer his phone and do a new deal with him. So you fail Crosby on a physical to save the picks and try to start filling all the holes he has because he can’t sign his draft picks to extensions before they hit the market.”

The Ravens have now lost the rights to Crosby, a generational pass rusher and dominant run stuffer who would have been playing for a team that is utterly bereft of any healthy pass rushers. Their leader in sacks, Dre’Mont Jones, left in free agency and their preferred candidate after Crosby, former Raven Odafe Oweh, signed with Washington. 

Former Bengals pass rusher Trey Hendrickson is available, but he is a liability against the run and is seeking a Crosby-type deal and he has medical red flags. Besides losing Linderbaum, by far the best player on what was a deficient offensive line last season, the Ravens also lost their most dynamic tight end (Isaiah Likely), a premier blocking tight end (Charlie Kolar), a perennial All Pro fullback (Pat Ricard), one of the best young punters in the NFL (Jordan Stout), one of their true special teams aces (linebacker Jake Hummel) and two former starting safeties.

With a roster in tatters, you could make the case for any number of critical positions of need with the 14th overall pick. And, now, especially, an edge rusher.