In one of the most shocking NFL moments of all time, the Baltimore Ravens have backed out of the Maxx Crosby trade with the Las Vegas Raiders. After speculation, it was revealed that the Ravens pulled out of the deal because Crosby failed his physical.
Why Maxx Crosby Did Not Pass His Physical With the Baltimore Ravens
Last season, Crosby had an excellent year, finishing the season ranked 2nd in PFSN’s EDGE Impact Metric. This is nothing new to Crosby and the Raiders, but this dominant year saw Crosby deal with major injury issues.
For most of the season, Crosby was playing with a knee injury. Near the end of the year, the Raiders shut him down for the rest of the campaign due to his injury, and there may have been some motivation to do so for trade and draft pick reasons.
According to Ian Rapoport, Crosby had surgery for this injury around the time of the Super Bowl. Rapoport mentioned that the injury will probably not allow him to be cleared near free agency:
“Sources clarified that Crosby actually underwent a minor meniscus repair — not a trim — on Jan. 7, meaning his recovery will be measured in months, not weeks. A meniscus trim is often 4-6 weeks of recovery while a repair can be 3-4 months. Crosby’s should be shorter.”
“While Crosby is ahead of schedule and the repair was considered to be a best-case scenario situation, it likely means he won’t be medically cleared before free agency officially begins on March 11 at the start of the new league year.”
Clearly, the information about Crosby’s injury was out there in the public, and teams were already sending offers to the Raiders for the star edge rusher with this injury in mind. So, Crosby failing the physical wasn’t a major surprise, but the Ravens backing out of the deal is.
With this deal off the table, Crosby is back with the Raiders, and teams around the NFL will be interested once again. Las Vegas may not be able to get the same value that they got in the Ravens deal. They were set to get a 2026 and 2027 first-round pick, which would have been excellent assets for a young rebuilding team.
Day 2 of the legal tampering period was much slower than day 1, but this news just made today historic.
Editor’s Note: This is a breaking news story and will be updated throughout the day as more information becomes available.
