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.
After Saturday’s inaugural Fanatics Flag Football Classic, Tom Brady met with reporters. And while most of the questions focused on flag football, he got one about the tackle football team he partially owns.
Unfortunately, it was a two-pronged inquiry that allowed him to non-answer one half, and to completely ignore the other.
Here’s the question Brady was asked about the Raiders: “Question about your NFL job. . . . [G.M. John] Spytek has talked about you being more involved in football this year. How will your role be different? And did you have any reaction to the Maxx Crosby trade that didn’t happen?”
Brady answered only the front end.
“You know, I love being involved in the NFL,” Brady said. “Like I said, I love football. I love sports. You know, I was very fortunate in my career to be around amazing people and mentors like Robert Kraft, as an owner of a team, and now getting to work with Mark Davis in the role that I’m at, and to see kind of a different team shape, the way that things are done and how we’re evolving and growing, and, you know, we certainly have a long ways to go. And, you know, it’s — what I learned about football in 23 seasons is, it’s a tremendous amount of resilience, adversity, discipline, determination, communication, of an entire organization to see, really the value in committing to one another. So, you know, it’s always, I think, process over outcomes, and I think we’re all trying — and all of us in our own role that we have, and the role that we have, and whether it’s an ownership role or a personnel department or strength and conditioning and athletic training and obviously players and positions and offense, defense — everyone’s got to come together. Everyone has to work incredibly hard for the people next to them.”
After Brady finished, the reporter apparently tried to ask a followup regarding the failed Crosby trade. But someone else started in with another question, and the subject changed.
As to the part Brady answered, he said didn’t specifically address his current role with the Raiders. It was just word salad; big-picture observations and platitudes and filibustering and nothing meaningful about what he is actively doing to help the Raiders deal with the reality that, as he conceded, “we certainly have a long ways to go.”
Yes, the Raiders have a long way to go. And the Eastbound-and-Down Brady has a short time to get there before he’ll be labeled as a failure in his effort to turn a pro football team into a contender.
Veteran receiver DeAndre Hopkins is looking for a new NFL team. He’s hoping to tap into an old connection.
Hopkins recently told TMZ that he’d like to reunite with quarterback Kyler Murray in Minnesota.
“Kyler . . . that’s my bro, man,” Hopkins said. “Kyler is like family. Whatever I can do for someone like that -- if Kyler needed me, if the Vikings need me, they know I’ll be there.”
The remark reconfirms the perception that Murray is the new starter in Minnesota (or, at a minimum, that it’s Murray’s job to lose).
The more pressing question for Hopkins is whether the Vikings envision a spot for him in the lineup. The depth chart is led by Justin Jefferson, obviously. Jordan Addison is the No. 2, as he approaches the last year of his first-round rookie deal. (The question of whether they’ll exercise his fifth-year option may not be the no-brainer it once seemed to be.) Jalen Nailor, mainly a slot receiver, left in free agency.
Hopkins has a specific and unique skill set. He displayed it during Saturday’s flag football event, boxing out an overmatched Team USA defender to make a one-handed catch of the undersized ball.
Hopkins turns 34 in June. He overlapped with Murray in Arizona from 2020 through 2022. He caught the Hail Murray touchdown pass amid a sea of Buffalo defenders, capping arguably the highlight of Murray’s career to date.
The challenge becomes setting aside Hopkins’s past achievements and assessing his expected contributions as of 2026. He had limited opportunities with the Ravens in 2025, catching 41 passes on 59 targets for 437 yards and four touchdowns.
Still, Hopkins could be a potent weapon in the red zone, giving Murray an option for jump balls in the back corner if/when the defense focuses on Jefferson.
New Ravens head coach Jesse Minter is taking over a team with very high expectations.
The betting odds have the Ravens’ win total at over/under 11.5, the highest win total in the NFL. That means Minter’s team would have to go at least 12-5 to exceed expectations in Year One.
In 2025 the Ravens finished a disappointing 8-9, leading to the departure of head coach John Harbaugh. Minter was brought in to take the Ravens back to where they were in 2024, when they went 12-5. That’s where expectations are this year.
Behind the Ravens, nine teams are tied for the next-highest win total: The Bills, Chiefs, Chargers, Lions, Packers, Rams, Eagles, Seahawks and 49ers all have their win totals set at over/under 10.5.
Flag football is very different from tackle football. And the current and former NFL players facing the U.S. men’s national flag football team are learning that.
The first half of the game between the U.S. team and the Wildcats (captained by Joe Burrow and Jayden Daniels) did not go well for the pro players. The first drive by the Wildcats failed to result in a first down. The U.S. team went right down the field, with the NFL players struggling to master the skill of grabbing flags.
The opening drive by the U.S. team included multiple penalties against the Wildcats for excessive contact. After quarterback Darrell “Housh” Doucette III scored a touchdown on a running play (which included another penalty for illegal contact), Doucette chirped at non-football player Logan Paul. Paul removed Doucette’s sunglasses and threw them, drawing another foul.
Then came a pick six of Burrow, two plays later.
The Wildcats finally woke up, with a long touchdown pass by Burrow to DeAndre Hopkins, who easily boxed out the defender caught the undersized ball with one hand.
The U.S. team scored on the next drive, pushing the score to 19-6 after one half.
While the NFL players are generally bigger and faster and stronger (that said, Doucette seems to be able to weave through and around them), the tackle football players are clearly out of their element. If NFL playershope to represent the U.S. in the 2028 Olympics, they’ll need time to learn the game, and to figure out the rules. Which will take more than a casual commitment.
