Although happy to have Maxx Crosby back in the fold, Las Vegas Raiders fans won't be getting over the Baltimore Ravens backing out of the agreed-upon trade for the superstar defender anytime soon, nor should they. General manager Eric DeCosta has an enemy for life in the diehards of Raider Nation.
We may never get the real story about what happened in the 72 hours or so that Crosby wasn't a member of the Silver and Black, but fans don't feel like they need confirmation. Baltimore backed out, kept their draft picks, and immediately signed Trey Hendrickson to the same deal. It is clear as day.
So, fans should revel in this tidbit from the 2026 NFL Draft in which DeCosta gets a taste of his own medicine. Even though the two deals weren't in the same stratosphere, Raiders fans have to love hearing that Baltimore had the rug pulled out from underneath them on Day 1 of this year's draft.
Raiders fans have to laugh as Ravens get rug pulled from under them in draft trade
The Athletic's Michael Silver, known to rile up Raider Nation with his work, spent the draft in Baltimore with DeCosta. And while the piece was clearly meant to make DeCosta look like a more sympathetic figure than he has in recent months, Silver also provided a moment for Las Vegas fans to revel in.
He noted that, with the Ravens on the clock at No. 14 (the pick that had originally been sent to the Raiders in the Crosby deal), DeCosta had a cluster of players that he was interested in still available, so he was looking to move down the board and gather some extra capital. Here's where it gets funny:
"He thought he had a deal worked out with a team (which he declined to name) that would keep the Ravens picking in the teens and allow them to pick up extra fourth-round picks in each of the next two drafts," Silver wrote. "Once on the clock, however, the trade fell through. This time, it was not DeCosta’s doing. 'We had something on the table, but inexplicably, they told us they’d changed their mind. They changed the deal (and made another offer that wasn’t as good), and we passed.'”
Does that sound familiar to you, Raider Nation?
Again, the circumstances surrounding this trade are insignificant compared to the blockbuster that would have sent Crosby to Baltimore. But it is objectively hilarious that DeCosta and the Ravens got blindsided at the last minute and low-balled before the team ultimately backed out of the deal.
It doesn't make up for what Crosby, Las Vegas or this fanbase went through, but it does allow a smile to be cracked at DeCosta's expense. While Baltimore did still land a great player in Penn State guard Vega Ioane, things didn't go according to plan for the Ravens here. It's a minor case of poetic justice.
The rest of the article simply props up DeCosta's work as a general manager and paints him as the one who had to struggle the most through the entire Crosby debacle, as if it weren't all his own undoing. DeCosta is painted as brave for accepting the backlash that he welcomed by being shady.
An example of him swapping some late-round draft picks was even used as evidence that those around the league have no hesitation in still making deals with Baltimore. We'll see about that the next time a big-ticket player is available, and the Ravens want to throw their hat in the ring.
But in the meantime, the thought of DeCosta getting left at the altar here is enough for Raiders fans to smirk or lighten up. He didn't get it as bad as the Raiders did, but DeCosta can now at least start to understand what everyone involved went through, thanks to his choice to want his cake and eat it too.
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