The Las Vegas Raiders reboot in 2026, and it remains to be seen if star pass rusher Maxx Crosby will be in the fold for another attempted rebuild. Crosby has not publicly requested a trade or reported that he wants out of Sin City, but reports of shifting loyalty exists since the franchise shut him down early this past season against his will.
Fox Sports’ Jay Glazer — who was first to report on Crosby’s frustration — reported he believes his time with the Raiders is over. Albert Breer of The MMQB stated that Crosby’s beef with the Raiders goes all the way to the top of the organization with Tom Brady and Alex Guerrero, and that there’s a lot of “fence-mending” that needs to happen.
At the 2026 NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis, Raiders general manager John Spytek finally broke his silence on the Crosby issue, saying that he expects him to be with the Raiders next season.
“Maxx is an elite player and I’m been very upfront that we’re in the business of having really good players on the team, and we need a lot more of them,” Spytek reported, per CBS Sports NFL insider Jonathan Jones. “It’s hard to build a great team without elite players.”
Crosby is going to be one of the hottest topics at the combine this year. If the Raiders are actually open to trading Crosby, a potential package would likely resemble the one the Dallas Cowboys netted for Micah Parsons: Two first-round picks and a player. Perhaps Crosby could go for more.
Crosby is one of the best defensive ends in football. As a fourth-round pick out of Eastern Michigan in 2019, he made five Pro Bowls, earned Second Team All-Pro twice. He recorded the most tackles for loss (133), the fifth-most QB hits (164) and sixth-most sacks (69.5) while playing the most snaps among all defensive linemen (6,112).
Crosby has remained fiercely loyal to the Raiders despite them posting just one winning season in his seven years. After what happened this past season, he may be more open to a change of scenery than ever, but it remains to be seen if the Raiders are.
“I have a lot of goals, but I do want to win,” Crosby reported on the “Let’s Go!” podcast earlier this month (H/T NFL.com). “That’s all that matters ultimately, but I want to be in a place where mentally I’m 100 percent myself. I just want to focus on football. That’s truly what I want. People that know me know I’m about the work and the football. I just want to play football and be left the f— alone. Period. And the people that don’t understand that don’t f—— know me. People can say whatever they want. … But truly, I don’t give a f— besides playing football and winning football games. I give my whole life to this sport every single day.
“I’m here every morning. My alarm goes off at 4:55, and I’m f—— driving 35 minutes across town in an empty, dark building, doing the same thing every single day, trying to help my team, trying to help myself. People can talk all they want. People go on Twitter. I don’t even see half the s—. Like I reported, half of it is news to me. I just care about playing football.”
