Back in March, Maxx Crosby was briefly no longer a Las Vegas Raider. Then the Baltimore Ravens acted like the recovery timeline from his January knee surgery was some kind of secret, and they bailed on the agreed-to trade before it could become official.
Trade speculation around Crosby is not totally going to go away anytime soon, if ever. It's still very possible that he finishes his career elsewhere, since his age and even an optimistic timeline for the Raiders to become a contender under head coach Klint Kubiak don't align.
Kubiak is also the sixth head coach Crosby has had in his career, counting interim Rich Bisaccia in 2021, as he heads into his eighth season.
Criticism of Maxx Crosby's contract ignores big picture of the situation
In that vein, Brad Gagnon of Bleacher Report has ranked the 10 worst contracts in the NFL heading into the 2026 season. Crosby's contract landed at No. 8.
"The Contract:Â 3 years, $106.5 million with $91.5 million guaranteed (signed in 2025)
"The Problem:Â After putting up a combined 27 sacks in 2022 and 2023, the seven-year veteran has failed to top 10 sacks in either of the last two seasons. He'll turn 29 this summer, and a continued decline is inevitable."
"The Kicker:Â The Raiders are pretty much stuck paying him more than $65 million over the course of the next two years. They tried trading him this offseason for a reason."
It's fair to say Crosby has not, at least in terms of sacks, produced to the level of his contract over the last couple of seasons. But Gagnon ignored the full extent of the situation he teased by noting when the deal was signed.
Trade rumors have lingered around Crosby for a while, as the Raiders have piled up losses and years of his prime have been wasted. In 2025, another new general manager (John Spytek) and head coach (Pete Carroll) were coming in.
Crosby surely would have bought into what Carroll was supposed to bring to the table, and he said the right things publicly. But at the same time, showing him how much he was valued was low-hanging fruit for a new regime. They showed him the money, and he obviously signed that extension.
As part of a three-year, $106.5 million contract extension in March of 2025, Crosby's 2025 and 2026 base salaries were increased and fully guaranteed. As a practical matter, his $29 million base salary for 2027 was fully guaranteed at signing, and now it is.
Crosby's extension briefly made him the highest-paid non-quarterback in the league ($35.5 million per year). So, the kibosh was also put on any idea he'd be traded that offseason. Even if it was short-lived, squashing that trade talk had to be done before it loomed in the first year of a new regime.
Gagnon also missed, or ignored, an important aspect of Crosby's contract: The idea of trading him is strongly rooted in how favorable the deal is on that front.
The Raiders could trade Crosby today, and they would clear nearly $30.7 million in cap space with just $5.1 million left behind in dead money. After this year, the dead money left behind by trading him will completely go away.
The general formula for a bad contract is less than ideal timing and the removal of flexibility. The Raiders' circumstances at the time they extended Crosby said they had to do something, and they also maintained the ability to fairly easily trade him if circumstances went that way.
It's easy to find a huge flaw with a litany of things the Raiders have done lately. Crosby's three-year extension in 2025 does not belong on that list, let alone anywhere on a list of the current worst contracts league-wide.
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