The Baltimore Ravens‘ concerns about edge rusher Maxx Crosby’s health before nixing their deal with the Las Vegas Raiders were apparently more about his long-term durability rather than his viability for the 2026 season.
Baltimore discovered that Crosby had a “degenerative knee issue” that would cause issues beyond the 2026 season during its medical exam of the star edge rusher, ESPN reported Tuesday. It had been reported that the Ravens pulled out of the trade for Crosby due to medical concerns, but Tuesday’s report gave the first inclination for why Baltimore decided to opt out of the deal.
Crosby underwent surgery on a meniscus tear in his left knee in early January. While Crosby was able to play through the injury for the second half of the 2025 season, it was determined that he would need to undergo surgery at some point in the offseason.
Even though the Ravens knew that Crosby had recently undergone surgery, that didn’t prevent them from agreeing to a deal with the Raiders to send two first-round picks for the five-time Pro Bowler. One of those picks was the 14th overall selection in the 2026 NFL Draft.
Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta told reporters that he was “gutted” the team had to pull out of the trade for Crosby a day after the news broke that Baltimore was no longer doing the deal. But he also offered an explanation for why he felt the Ravens couldn’t go forward with the trade for Crosby.
“We’ve done a lot of different trades. One of the key things is you bring the player in and try to get as much information as you can,” DeCosta said. “We did that, and we were not able to complete the process of acquiring the player based on our assessment of the situation.”
Ravens cancel Maxx Crosby deal, What’s next for the Raiders?
While the Ravens might have felt like they saw enough in Crosby’s medicals to reasonably pull out of the trade, several people around the league were upset by their actions.
“Whatever they saw [in their medical exam] higher be career-threatening, in any other case you don’t do that,” one NFL government advised our Ralph Vacchiano shortly after the Ravens determined to nix the commerce. “They knew one thing was improper along with his knee. He simply had surgical procedure to get it mounted. It actually seems like that they had another motive for wanting out of this deal.”
Individuals near Crosby additionally got here to his protection shortly after Baltimore opted to not undergo with the commerce.
“Maxx continues to be on observe in his restoration and if something is forward of schedule in accordance with his surgeon Dr Neal El Attrache,” Crosby’s agent, CJ Labot, wrote in a social media post. “Maxx stays on observe to return in the course of the offseason program & will undoubtedly return because the dominant recreation wrecker he has been these previous 7 seasons.”
“Maxx Crosby is doing very effectively within the early a part of his rehab and restoration from surgical procedure to deal with a major meniscus tear and the associated stress damage to the bone and cartilage in his knee. He’s actually on observe in his deliberate program….he feels very effectively and is already a lot improved in comparison with earlier than surgical procedure,” Dr. Neal ElAttrache added in a statement to ESPN.
Whereas the Raiders are holding onto Crosby in the meanwhile, the Ravens had been in a position to pivot and add an impression edge rusher this offseason. They agreed to a four-year take care of star edge Trey Hendrickson a day after it was introduced that they had been pulling out of the Crosby commerce.
