Veteran defensive lineman D.J. Reader could find a job in Baltimore.
The NFL’s transaction report for Thursday shows that Reader visited with the Ravens. It’s the first reported visit of the month for Reader, who was No. 40 on PFT’s list of this year’s top free agents.
Reader started every game for the Lions last season and finished the year with 28 tackles. He also played 15 games for the Lions in 2024 and previously appeared in 105 games for the Bengals and Texans.
Reader has 328 tackles, 12.5 sacks, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery over all of those stops.
The Ravens saw Dre’Mont Jones sign with the Patriots after free agency opened this month. Brent Urban and Taven Bryan remain free agents after playing for the team last season.
Just when he thought he was out, they pulled him back in.
He still could end up out again.
In his deep dive regarding the failed Maxx Crosby trade from the Raiders to the Ravens, Ryan McFadden of ESPN reports that the Raiders continue to get calls about Crosby.
“Teams continue to check in on his availability,” McFadden writes, “but as of now, the Raiders’ asking price to trade Crosby’s contract remains high.”
Baltimore’s decision to pass on the trade given Crosby’s knee has made other teams “hesitant” to meet the Raiders’ demands. Based on McFadden’s reporting, however, the door hasn’t been slammed shut.
One factor will be whether and to what extent Crosby’s knee improves to the point that it will make a team comfortable to do the deal. It also would be prudent for both sides to keep things quiet until the new team has a chance to get a fresh look at Crosby’s surgically-repaired knee.
Crosby has said he wants to stay with the Raiders. The question is whether the Raiders prefer to move his contract for draft picks, and whether someone will offer enough to get them to do it.
Last year, Joe Flacco arrived in Cincinnati by trade. This year, it’s by choice.
Via agent Joe Linta, Flacco has agreed to terms on a one-year deal with the Bengals.
Flacco, 41, appeared in nine games for the Bengals in 2025, with six starts. He had opened the season as the Browns’ starter. Cleveland traded him to Cincinnati after Flacco was benched for rookie Dillon Gabriel.
Flacco joins Joe Burrow, Josh Johnson, and Sean Clifford on the depth chart in Cincinnati.
A first-round pick of the Ravens in 2008, Flacco won the Super Bowl XLVII MVP award to cap the 2012 season. He was twice the NFL’s highest-paid player.
He was cut by the Ravens after the 2018 season. Since then, he has played for the Broncos, Jets, Browns (twice), the Colts, and the Bengals. In 2023, a late-season stint in Cleveland resulted in Flacco winning the comeback player of the year award.
The new deep dive regarding the Maxx Crosby trade to the Ravens that wasn’t includes more information about the Cowboys’ interest in trading for Crosby, before the Raiders struck an ultimately failed deal with Baltimore.
Via Ryan McFadden of ESPN, the Cowboys made three different offers to the Raiders.
First, they offered the 20th overall pick in the first round of the 2026 draft and defensive tackle Osa Odighizuwa. Second, they offered the 12th overall pick in round one and a third-round pick, but not Odighizuwa.
The third and final offer was the 12th overall pick and a second-round pick, but not Odighizuwa.
The Raiders, as PFT reported during Scouting Combine week, wanted two first-round picks and a player. They eventually got two first-round picks from the Ravens, until the Ravens decided not to proceed.
Earlier this month, Cowboys owner and G.M. Jerry Jones didn’t rule out making another run at Crosby. (So much for not talking about players under contract with other teams.) The magnitude and number of the offers shows that the Cowboys were very interested.
Given that they’ve yet to make good on Jerry’s vow to “bust the budget” with defensive talent, Crosby could still be the ace in Jerry’s glory hole.
It’s been only two weeks since the backpedal heard ‘round the football world. A new article from Ryan McFadden of ESPN takes a detailed look at the failed Maxx Crosby trade from the Raiders to the Ravens.
Here’s the key quote from McFadden’s reporting on Baltimore’s decision to not proceed: “The consensus was that Crosby would be able to play in 2026. The Ravens’ concern centered on the uncertainty of Crosby’s durability after a couple of seasons in Baltimore because of a degenerative issue in his knee, a source told ESPN.”
Crosby had surgery to repair a torn meniscus in January. He was, and still is, recovering from the procedure.
The reasoning makes sense. The Ravens were going to send a pair of first-round picks to the Raiders. The Ravens had never (and still haven’t) traded a first-round pick for a player. They presumably wanted Crosby to be something more than a short-term answer — especially if they were also going to be giving Crosby a sweetener over the four years and $116 million remaining on his current deal (which works out to a well-below-market average of $29 million per year).
In the end, the Ravens had to make a projection about the condition of the knee for 2026 and beyond. And they did.
Did the availability of Trey Hendrickson beyond the first wave of free agency play a role in the ultimate assessment? If he hadn’t overpriced himself, he would have been long gone by the time the Ravens conducted Crosby’s physical. By Tuesday, Hendrickson was available at $28 million per year, and with no draft-pick compensation.
It all comes back to the timeline that both teams implemented. The terms were agreed to on Friday, March 6. Both teams should have wanted to get the physical done before the market opened on Monday, March 9. The Raiders should have insisted on it.
The delay opened the door to the Ravens having the ability to assess Crosby’s knee, to consider the total investment, and to compare the transaction to other available alternatives.
Remember, no NFL trade is ever done until the two teams communicate the deal separately to the league office, with matching terms. For trades negotiated before the start of the new league year, either team can back out at any time and for any reason.
The Raiders, if they truly wanted to keep Crosby, should be happy that it happened. Crosby has rediscovered his passion for the team. He’ll have extra motivation to prove the Ravens wrong for doubting his abilities.
He wanted out; he now wants in. The Ravens arguably did the Raiders a favor.
Regardless, the Ravens decided based on the medical information that they weren’t comfortable proceeding. The Raiders did that in 2023 with quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, after getting a look at his injured foot. (The deal was renegotiated to protect the team against Garoppolo not eventually passing a physical.) The Raiders did it in 2014, after they got a look at offensive lineman Rodger Saffold’s shoulder.
Time will tell whether the Ravens got it right. For 2026 and beyond, Crosby will be determined to prove, in every snap from every game, that the Ravens got it wrong.
