Although the dust has settled a bit and the picture is now clearer on the Baltimore Ravens backing out of their trade with the Las Vegas Raiders for Maxx Crosby, things haven't exactly gotten better for the Silver and Black.
Whereas the Ravens immediately (or preemptively) pivoted toward Trey Hendrickson, the belle of the ball when it came to free agent pass-rushers, Las Vegas is left to clean up the mess. Their situation is much messier than Baltimore's, even though everything they did was above board.
But ESPN's Adam Schefter made one of his frequent appearances on The Pat McAfee Show on Wednesday in the aftermath of the chaos surrounding Crosby. He dropped a nugget about Trey Hendrickson's view of the Crosby situation, and Raider Nation should be calling "BS."
Adam Schefter believes Trey Hendrickson was in the dark about Maxx Crosby bombshell
Hendrickson, who is an underrated part of this whole saga, was communicating with the Ravens throughout Baltimore's reported eight-hour examination of Crosby's physical. Schefter gave Hendrickson's impression of how things went down, and it is hard to believe.
"Trey [Hendrickson] said that his understanding was, when he was thinking of going to Baltimore, the idea was to team up with Maxx Crosby," Schefter said. "And I don't think he was particularly thrilled that the Maxx Crosby trade fell through. He was looking forward, if he opted for the Baltimore offer, in the midst of his discussions with multiple other teams, to playing with Maxx Crosby. That was his initial impression."
Now, from a pure financial standpoint, the Ravens having both Crosby and Hendrickson doesn't make any sense. According to Spotrac, Baltimore has roughly $60 million in salary cap space, and each of those players would have cost $28 million. That's $56 million, leaving the Ravens with just $4 million.
That is nowhere near enough to sign an entire draft class, even without a first-round pick, and add 40 or so players to the roster, as Baltimore currently has just 49 players under contract. So, from a purely logistical standpoint, this idea doesn't hold up.
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Perhaps the Ravens kept Hendrickson in the dark about the Crosby situation. Based on their shady dealings lately, nothing would surprise me. But it's hard to believe that, at no point in negotiations between Baltimore and Hendrickson's camp, Crosby's health came up.
The Ravens weren't even reportedly in the running for Hendrickson after the Crosby trade went down last Friday, so Hendrickson's people had to know that something had changed if Baltimore wanted to suddenly negotiate again. It's almost unfeasible to believe that nobody would have asked.
It feels unlikely that Hendrickson would knowingly screw Crosby over, his fellow big-ticket defensive end. But Schefter's nugget about Hendrickson thinking that he was being paired with Crosby just doesn't make sense from a financial or a timeline standpoint.
He had to know the Crosby deal was off, or that there was at least a possibility it was, and that's why he and his people started to entertain Baltimore again. Otherwise, the two sides negotiating just makes zero sense. So, Schefter's report should fall on deaf ears in Raider Nation.