Baltimore Ravens-Maxx Crosby Trade Falls Through

Update March 10, 2026

The Trade between the Baltimore Ravens and Las Vegas Raiders involving edge rusher Maxx Crosby will not be completed after Crosby failed his physical.

Maxx Crosby now remains with the Raiders and the Baltimore Ravens are back to looking for edge help. In the mean time the Raven’s have lost a number of players in free agency including: FB Patrick Ricard, S Alohi Gilman, S Ar’Darius Washington, C Tyler Linderbaum, TE Charlie Kolar, P Jordan Stout, TE Isaiah Likely and edge Dre’Mont Jones. The analysis below reflects the original reported trade and its potential impact.

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Shockwaves have been running through the NFL community this weekend after the Baltimore Ravens made a huge play for defensive end Maxx Crosby. On Friday evening it was announced that the Ravens have come to an agreement with the Las Vegas Raiders to trade for Maxx Crosby. The Ravens are trading their first-round pick in this year’s 2026 NFL Draft and their first-round pick in next year’s 2027 NFL Draft for Crosby.

This is a huge deal for both teams as the Las Vegas Raiders are in a rebuilding phase. Maxx Crosby is 28 years old and will be 29 before entering this year’s NFL season. To be able to turn him into two first-round picks is a huge help in their journey toward a rebuild. On the other hand, one of the things that has truly been missing in Baltimore is an elite pass rusher. The Ravens haven’t had a truly elite pass rusher since Terrell Suggs left in March of 2019.

For the Ravens, this brings a big-time pass rusher into the mix. The Ravens sorely missed defensive tackle Nnamdi Madubuike last year, who brings a ton of pressure from the inside as well as providing stout run defense. It was just announced that Madubuike is training, and it seems like he could be back and ready to go this season. If the Ravens can pair these two stars together up front, it could mean disaster for opposing offenses.

Crosby has been in the NFL for seven seasons, and his career really speaks for itself. He was drafted in the fourth round of the NFL Draft by the then-Oakland Raiders and came out of the gate like a man possessed. His career numbers are shown below:

2019: 47 tackles, 10 sacks
2020: 39 tackles, 7 sacks
2021: 56 tackles, 8 sacks
2022: 89 tackles, 12.5 sacks
2023: 90 tackles, 14.5 sacks
2024: 45 tackles, 7.5 sacks
2025: 73 tackles, 10 sacks

These are elite numbers, and Maxx Crosby is a fierce competitor. He has missed some time in his career, which affected some of the output in these seasons, but it is also very hard to keep him off the field. He has played through so many injuries, and he has a true passion for the game.

In the 2020 season, Crosby sustained an ankle injury in Week 2 and played through most of the season but was shut down in the final week of that season. In 2023 (the season in which he had his highest total sacks), he played every game while playing through a torn meniscus for about 14 weeks. In 2024, Maxx Crosby played for only 12 weeks. He severely injured his ankle in Week 2 that season, which caused him to sit out Week 4. After that, he pushed through the injury, but it got worse at the end of the season and he was shut down from Weeks 15–18. In the 2025 season, he played through a knee injury from Weeks 7–15 but was then shut down for the remainder of that season as well.

Another big factor in this trade is the contract that Maxx Crosby carries and that the Baltimore Ravens have now inherited. While Crosby’s talent is undeniable, he comes with a heavy price tag. Crosby’s remaining contract value is $116 million over four years. Below are the estimated salary cap hits in each of the remaining four years of the contract:

2026: $30.7 million
2027: $29.8 million
2028: $27.3 million
2029: $28.2 million

So, let’s take a look at the big picture here. The obvious positives for the Baltimore Ravens are that they have acquired an elite pass-rushing and run-stopping talent with a huge motor, tons of leadership ability, and an infectious attitude that could really get this Ravens defense back to the mean and feared defense that Baltimore has been known for in years past.

The negatives are that Crosby will be 29 years old going into this season, and by the end of this contract he will be 32 years old. He has dealt with injuries throughout his career, but he has the toughness to play through a lot. With his age, his ability to play through these injuries may not be the same throughout this contract. Lastly, this is an expensive player. Not only is it a big hit against the salary cap for a team that doesn’t have a whole lot of salary cap space to begin with, but the Ravens lost two first-round draft picks to make this happen.

The loss of these draft picks should not be taken lightly. Until this trade happened, the Baltimore Ravens had never traded a single first-round pick for an active player in the 31-year history of the organization. In this trade they didn’t just trade one — they traded the next two. Personally, this is a tough pill to swallow. If the Ravens only had one true need and it was absolutely the final piece to the puzzle, then maybe it would be a little easier to come to terms with. However, the old saying that still rings true is that the game is won and lost in the trenches. Crosby undoubtedly helps with that on the defensive side of the ball, but on the offensive side it could make the Ravens very thin and put the health of franchise player Lamar Jackson at risk.

The Baltimore Ravens’ main weaknesses coming into this offseason were the offensive and defensive fronts. The Ravens have an aging left tackle in Ronnie Stanley, openings for competition at each guard position, a Pro Bowl center in Tyler Linderbaum who is set to be a free agent, and a young right tackle in Roger Rosengarten who has two solid seasons under his belt. The Ravens already needed to bring in better guards and think about a replacement for Ronnie Stanley, but on top of that, with the cost of the Crosby deal, it could result in losing the best piece that they had on the offensive line in Tyler Linderbaum, which could leave the Ravens with a very questionable offensive line.

With this deal, I do need to applaud general manager Eric DeCosta for going out and getting the true pass rusher that the team has needed for some time. However, I think this deal puts a lot of pressure on him.  To fill the empty voids left on the roster with the remaining cap space, DeCosta will truly have to work some magic in free agency and with the draft picks that the Ravens have on Days 2 and 3 of the next two drafts. If these young players that are brought in through the draft can be effective pieces to the puzzle on their rookie deals, then the Ravens could have something brewing.

With all of that said, I can’t wait to see Maxx Crosby causing havoc each week for the Baltimore Ravens, and I can’t wait to see the fear that this defense may bring to opposing offenses with the addition of Crosby in Jesse Minter’s defensive scheme.

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