ExtremeRavens Posted 6 hours ago Posted 6 hours ago Two weeks ago, Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta acknowledged a need to “augment” the team’s pass rush. Each of the past two Super Bowl winners featured a “ferocious pass rush” and, somehow, some way, he wanted that in Baltimore. On Friday, DeCosta took the biggest swing of his front office tenure by trading two first-round draft picks to the Las Vegas Raiders in exchange for superstar Maxx Crosby. Here are five (outside the obvious) things to know about Baltimore’s new pass rusher: He once signed the largest non-QB deal. That lasted less than a week. Three-hundred-and-sixty-four days before he was traded to the Ravens, Las Vegas made Crosby the highest-paid player in the NFL who isn’t a quarterback. It was a three-year, $106.5 million extension. Crosby held that title for all of four days before Cleveland made Myles Garrett the highest-paid non-quarterback. But it’s a nod to how valuable the position is and the caliber of player coming to Baltimore. Former Raiders coach Pete Carroll said at the time, “There’s no way we could find anybody that is more focused and directed and committed to giving everything he’s got to every opportunity he is going to get.” That opportunity looks a whole lot different one year later, nearly to the day. He went to rehab after a battle with addiction. Crosby has been sober since March 11, 2020. He’s been fairly transparent about addiction throughout his career. It started in high school and only intensified while playing at Eastern Michigan. There, he was suspended from the team after wrecking his car in a drunk driving accident. Coach Chris Creighton suspended him for two games, but struck a deal before the second: If Crosby stayed sober, took frequent breathalyzer and drug tests, and did community service, he could return after one game. Crosby stayed sober for nine months and made it to the NFL. Then he relapsed. Alcoholism runs in his family, Crosby said in 2021. He finished runner-up for NFL Rookie of the Year with a 10-sack season while battling alcohol dependency. Days before the world shut down for the COVID-19 pandemic, Crosby began a month-long stay in a rehab facility. “It was a big struggle,” he told ESPN in 2021. “But looking back on my journey, I know five years, 10 years down the road, I’ll look back and be like, that was the biggest offseason of my life, even though I was just trying to get my [stuff] together and just trying to stay above water. I know if I can make it through that [stuff] and get sober, I can do anything. It was special, and I met some awesome people along the way.” He’s known for sacking the quarterback, but he’s also a merciless run defender. The Ravens are no strangers to Crosby’s propensity for dragging down quarterbacks. In two meetings since 2021, the Raiders have twice beaten the Ravens, partially off the strength of multi-sack outings from Crosby. The five-time Pro Bowl selection has four double-digit sack seasons. He logged a career high 14 1/2 in 2023, and he isn’t nicknamed “Mad Maxx” by accident. Those numbers are all reasons to be intrigued by how quickly he’ll upgrade Baltimore’s pass rush. But he can plug the run too. Crosby has three seasons with more than 20 tackles for loss. He led the league in TFLs in 2022 and 2023, with 22 and 23, respectively. He played only 15 games this past season and still managed double-digit sacks to complement a career-high 28 TFLs, second only to Garrett. This past season, Pro Football Focus graded Crosby’s run defense (78.1) a tick higher than his pass rush (77.1). Same with 2024 and every season going back to 2021 — so by that imperfect metric, this past season wasn’t an outlier. In fact, since 2021, Crosby has had the best run defense grade in the NFL. “He’s upfield, he’s underneath, he’s into you, he’s back around the back side, he’s spinning, he’s knocking your hands off, he’s running to the ball,” former Ravens coach John Harbaugh said of Crosby last season. “He’s just a game wrecker — to use that word is exactly the right word.” The Ravens could have drafted Crosby seven years ago. To be fair, every team passed over Crosby. He was the 106th pick in the 2019 draft. There were 10 defensive ends selected before him. One of them was third-round pick Jaylon Ferguson out of Louisiana Tech. Ferguson was the all-time sack leader in FBS history, and by coming to Baltimore, he replaced the guy he usurped for the record: Terrell Suggs. Ferguson died three years later. Ferguson was much higher on team draft boards than Crosby coming out of college. But the Colleyville, Texas, native burst onto the scene in his first year at the pro level and never looked back, blossoming into one of the league’s most dominant edge defenders. One AFC team scout told NFL.com in 2019 that “when you watch him on tape, it gives off the same vibe as watching a good player’s old high school tape before he grew into his body.” Crosby proved him wrong. Add Crosby to the list of players with a podcast. Ravens cornerback Marlon Humphrey has a podcast. Pass rusher Kyle Van Noy hosted a short show reacting to games. Both are questionable to return in 2026, but either way, there’s new listening material for Ravens fans interested in player podcasts. It’s called “The Rush With Maxx Crosby.” He has 129 episodes and 100,000 subscribers. Former Ravens linebackers coach (among other stops) Rob Ryan, Bears quarterback Caleb Williams, Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders and ESPN insider Adam Schefter have all appeared on the show. During the season, Crosby reacted to happenings around the NFL and weighed in on some of the league’s preeminent storylines. He was asked on a recent episode if he still had intentions of being a “Raider for life.” Crosby didn’t offer much beyond “Life is good.” He has since been traded from a three-win team to a Super Bowl contender — fair to say life got even better. Have a news tip? Contact Sam Cohn at scohn@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/samdcohn.x.com. Sam appears as a host on The Sun’s “Early Birds” podcast. View the full article Quote
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