The 2026 NFL scouting combine was expected to be a hotbed for rumors surrounding Maxx Crosby. But quickly into the event, Las Vegas Raiders general manager John Spytek dispelled any notion that the team wanted to deal away their superstar defensive end.
"I am," Spytek said when asked if he's confident Crosby will remain in Las Vegas. "Maxx is an elite player, and I've been very upfront from the start, when I got here, that we're in the business of having really good players on the team, and we need a lot more of them. It's hard to build a great team without elite players."
This should, for the most part, silence any trade talks regarding the five-time Pro Bowler. But forgive me if I'm not convinced that this saga is over. What Spytek said doesn't preclude the Raiders from trading Crosby away; it just prevents the onus from being on them.
Spytek turned the heat up on Crosby like never before.
John Spytek just put the ball in Maxx Crosby's court for his Raiders future
Now, a world exists where Spytek and the Raiders want to keep Crosby. Probably this one. After all, he is one of the league's best players. But the Las Vegas front office is not naive to the fact that Crosby is likely still unhappy and won't clearly state that he wants to remain with the Silver and Black.
The ball is now in Crosby's court.
Of course, the irony is that the Raiders hold all the cards, as Crosby is under contract; a lucrative one, at that. If the veteran edge rusher wants out of Las Vegas, he'll have to explicitly ask to be traded, and that would make him the bad guy. That's not what Crosby wants. That's why he's been silent.
Not weighing in one way or the other gave Crosby the flexibility to play both sides. In this scenario, the Raiders trading him without a formal request would make the team look like the bad guys. Crosby could say that he never wanted out, and that it was Las Vegas' decision.
If he stuck around, he could also reintegrate with the fans and the locker room because he never publicly stated that he was unhappy with the Raiders. Not saying anything was really Crosby's only card to play after the way things went down at the end of the year.
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But Spytek is calling his bluff.
Las Vegas has clearly stated what side it is on. And now they can't lose. They either keep the best player on the roster in the building and retain his rights, or the Raiders will cash in on a big return for Crosby because he wanted out. Not because they didn't want him there.
Perhaps the initial disagreement has been blown out of proportion, and the two sides are as comfortable with moving forward together as Spytek says they are. But Spytek is also incredible at this aspect of his job, and he could be playing Crosby's camp like a fiddle.
Just because Spytek, in a way, shut down the rumors doesn't mean that this saga is over. It just means that the dynamic of it has shifted. All will be quiet on this front until Crosby either re-ups his commitment to The Shield or formally asks for a trade.
And that's just what Spytek wants. He knows that anything can still happen. But he's covering his tracks so that the Raiders smell like roses coming out of this ordeal, and the franchise gets the best possible outcome either way. That's what a good general manager does.