The Raiders are in complete rebuilding mode, and that could mean finally dealing All-Pro pass rusher Maxx Crosby. Albert Breer is reporting that the Raiders are ready to make a deal, in a classic case of “why bad teams stay bad,” Las Vegas waited far too long to shop him. This means the draft compensation they could land has precipitously fallen from potentially two first-round picks, akin to the deal the Cowboys got for Micah Parsons, to now looking at maybe a first and a mid-round pick as well.
It was a down year for Crosby in 2025, as the defensive end finished with 10.0 sacks and made the Pro Bowl, but the distinct lack of help around him meant that Crosby was being doubled on almost every down, and had to fight far too much to generate his production. It’s a testament to his ability that 10.0 sacks constitutes a “down year,” and with a solid defense around him there’s little doubting he won’t return to being one of the best pass rushers in the NFL.
Let’s now take a look at the seven teams currently rumored to be looking at Crosby in a trade, and work out who makes the most sense in a deal.
The only knock you could make against Micah Parsons is that he wasn’t great against the run. In fact, this is essentially what Jerry Jones said when the Cowboys made the trade. While Maxx Crosby isn’t quite the game-breaking pass rusher, he is a more complete player because of his ability to seal the edge.
Crosby has all the traits Jones and the Cowboys are looking for in a pass rusher. The functional issue is that with George Pickens receiving the franchise tag they don’t have the cap space. It would take a huge number of restructuring deals to make this work — and the returns on adding Crosby to a middling team might not be worth it.
It’s go time for the Chicago Bears. Ben Johnson is turning this team around in a hurry, with the offense emerging as one of the best upcoming units in the NFL. Now it’s time to strike while the iron is hot, which makes a Maxx Crosby deal so fascinating.
Chicago is in a unique position where they could offer a 1st round pick, and potentially throw in DJ Moore to give the Raiders a decent receiver for Fernando Mendoza, without gutting the Bears’ draft capital in the process.
The Ravens are in a weird spot right now where they have a majority of their pass rushers all hitting free agency, needing a serious re-vamp at the position. Crosby fits the bill, and would be a huge boost — but again, where is the money coming from? It would take more restructuring to make it work — and perhaps most glaringly, it would mean ignoring the offensive side of the ball.
Baltimore is headed towards this place where they’re neither amazing on offense or defense. That’s not a sustainable plan. They really need to forge an identity under Jesse Minter, and spending every available resource on Crosby out of the gate is a Band-Aid I don’t love for them.
The Bills are fast approaching “rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic” territory, and their interest in Crosby is proof of that. Buffalo doesn’t have the room to get this deal done, like a lot of teams on the list — and while he’s incredible, the Bills are much further away from winning the AFC than just plugging in an elite defensive end.
Right now the Bills feel rudderless. GM Brandon Beane seemingly doesn’t know how to fix them, it’s unlikely that new head coach Joe Brady will magically have the formula that Sean McDermott didn’t. It feels like a move the Bills could make, yet one they absolutely shouldn’t. This team needs to get better through the draft before Josh Allen’s window closes.
Now here’s a place that just makes too much sense. The Patriots were already an elite team that made it to the Super Bowl, and they have the secondary set. They do need more help up front, and that’s absolutely fine when you have $36M in open effective cap space.
It would be extremely easy for the Pats to get Crosby, and potentially even swing a deal for WR A.J. Brown to reunite with Mike Vrabel and turn this team into a juggernaut that nobody in the NFL wants to see.
There’s some financial wiggle room here, and I understand the Eagles interest — especially if they clear A.J. Brown off the books. The issue is that defense wasn’t really the issue in 2025. Spending money on that side of the ball leads to diminishing returns when the $30+ million in cap space could be used to fix some of the problems on the offensive side of the ball.
If there’s a desire to turn Philly into even more of a defensive-first football team, okay. Still I not sure this makes a lot of sense based on where they’re at.
The Rams should absolutely make this deal, because their window is right now. The offense has no issues, but the secondary is a glaring problem for Los Angeles. You can either try to fix that problem with slowly building out multiple positions, or try to throw so much pass rush onto the team that it becomes impossible to deal with for an offense.
Crosby solves multiple problems as a pass rusher and run stopper. It’s a great fit, and he would be the ideal person to add to the culture of the Rams. This might be the best place for both Crosby and the organization, who would immediately put themselves back in the Super Bowl conversation with this move.
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![The Rams’ shocking Ty Simpson pick might have pissed off Sean McVay, and here’s why There were a lot of surprises in the first round of the NFL Draft on Thursday night. The Titans taking Carnell Tate at No. 4? Unexpected. Caleb Downs, Rueben Bain, and Makai Lemon all sliding? Shocking — but it was what the Los Angeles Rams did with the No. 13 overall pick that was truly jaw-dropping, selecting Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson to be their signal caller of the future. We gave the pick a C+ grade.It’s not that Simpson is bad, or even that the Rams taking him wasn’t on the cards. In fact, for a long time there was speculation the team would take Simpson in the 1st round, just at No. 29, until Los Angeles traded the pick for Trent McDuffie. The confusion around the selection is aimed more at the fact that taking a quarterback to prepare for the eventuality of Matthew Stafford’s retirement was too cute, and too smart for its own good — especially when the Rams are a team built to win right now.This only got worse following the draft when coach Sean McVay looked flat-out annoyed while hearing GM Les Snead wax poetic about Ty Simpson.“We’ve talked about the importance of Jimmy [Garoppolo]. To be able to add somebody that you can evaluate a body of work where he was asked to play the position and a lot of things that do translate in terms of concepts, reading with his feet, some of the different things in the drop back in the play-action game and the movement game. There are a lot of things that [Alabama offensive coordinator Ryan] Grubb did that’s very similar to how we operate, so it made it an easier evaluation to be able to say, ‘Alright, what would that look like if he did translate it to our level?’”Here’s another clip from McVay’s post-draft presser:The most generous reading of these comments is that McVay is fine with the pick. His verbiage is more akin to how coaches talk about day three picks, not someone you take No. 13 overall. This is especially notable considering the board at the time, which could have landed the Rams someone like Makai Lemon or Kenyon Sadiq, either of whom would have bolstered the Rams passing attack — or even safety Dillon Thieneman, who would have been an upgrade to the secondary.It’s going to be at least two years before we learn whether or not picking Simpson was a genius move or not, but there are more questions about the pick after people learned that Snead had personal entanglements with the Simpson family.It’s only natural to question whether or not Snead had tunnel vision for Simpson throughout this process. One would think that a general manager and head coach’s vision naturally aligns, but this is a case where it might not. Snead’s job is to be more forward-looking at the overall health of the franchise, while McVay’s is to get the most out of the guys he has in front of him. There very well could have been friction about seeing the Falcons’ pick (which they obtained in 2025) as a means to land a quarterback, with the expectation that they’ll otherwise be picking in the back-end of the 20s, or hopefully 32 — while McVay didn’t want to put the cart in front of the horse, and instead get someone that would help prevent the Rams from flaming out in the playoffs.What makes this all so interesting is that the Rams are typically an organization held up as a paragon of vision and smart decision-making. Selecting Simpson could end up being genius, or a bizarrely desperate move to get a second-round QB talent too early in the draft, just to correct a problem that doesn’t exist yet.When Simpson does eventually take over for the Rams at QB, he’ll have barely played football at all since leaving high school:One thing is certain: If the Rams fail to make it to the Super Bowl this season, then everyone will be looking at who could have helped the team with this No. 13 pick — and it won’t be Ty Simpson. #Rams #shocking #Simpson #pick #pissed #Sean #McVay #heres](https://i2.wp.com/platform.sbnation.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/Screenshot-2026-04-24-at-12.30.12PM.png?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C7.1029668411867%2C100%2C85.794066317627&w=1200&ssl=1 "The Rams’ shocking Ty Simpson pick might have pissed off Sean McVay, and here’s why There were a lot of surprises in the first round of the NFL Draft on Thursday night. The Titans taking Carnell Tate at No. 4? Unexpected. Caleb Downs, Rueben Bain, and Makai Lemon all sliding? Shocking — but it was what the Los Angeles Rams did with the No. 13 overall pick that was truly jaw-dropping, selecting Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson to be their signal caller of the future. We gave the pick a C+ grade.It’s not that Simpson is bad, or even that the Rams taking him wasn’t on the cards. In fact, for a long time there was speculation the team would take Simpson in the 1st round, just at No. 29, until Los Angeles traded the pick for Trent McDuffie. The confusion around the selection is aimed more at the fact that taking a quarterback to prepare for the eventuality of Matthew Stafford’s retirement was too cute, and too smart for its own good — especially when the Rams are a team built to win right now.This only got worse following the draft when coach Sean McVay looked flat-out annoyed while hearing GM Les Snead wax poetic about Ty Simpson.“We’ve talked about the importance of Jimmy [Garoppolo]. To be able to add somebody that you can evaluate a body of work where he was asked to play the position and a lot of things that do translate in terms of concepts, reading with his feet, some of the different things in the drop back in the play-action game and the movement game. There are a lot of things that [Alabama offensive coordinator Ryan] Grubb did that’s very similar to how we operate, so it made it an easier evaluation to be able to say, ‘Alright, what would that look like if he did translate it to our level?’”Here’s another clip from McVay’s post-draft presser:The most generous reading of these comments is that McVay is fine with the pick. His verbiage is more akin to how coaches talk about day three picks, not someone you take No. 13 overall. This is especially notable considering the board at the time, which could have landed the Rams someone like Makai Lemon or Kenyon Sadiq, either of whom would have bolstered the Rams passing attack — or even safety Dillon Thieneman, who would have been an upgrade to the secondary.It’s going to be at least two years before we learn whether or not picking Simpson was a genius move or not, but there are more questions about the pick after people learned that Snead had personal entanglements with the Simpson family.It’s only natural to question whether or not Snead had tunnel vision for Simpson throughout this process. One would think that a general manager and head coach’s vision naturally aligns, but this is a case where it might not. Snead’s job is to be more forward-looking at the overall health of the franchise, while McVay’s is to get the most out of the guys he has in front of him. There very well could have been friction about seeing the Falcons’ pick (which they obtained in 2025) as a means to land a quarterback, with the expectation that they’ll otherwise be picking in the back-end of the 20s, or hopefully 32 — while McVay didn’t want to put the cart in front of the horse, and instead get someone that would help prevent the Rams from flaming out in the playoffs.What makes this all so interesting is that the Rams are typically an organization held up as a paragon of vision and smart decision-making. Selecting Simpson could end up being genius, or a bizarrely desperate move to get a second-round QB talent too early in the draft, just to correct a problem that doesn’t exist yet.When Simpson does eventually take over for the Rams at QB, he’ll have barely played football at all since leaving high school:One thing is certain: If the Rams fail to make it to the Super Bowl this season, then everyone will be looking at who could have helped the team with this No. 13 pick — and it won’t be Ty Simpson. #Rams #shocking #Simpson #pick #pissed #Sean #McVay #heres")
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