Silver And Black Pride
Elite edge rusher knows there’s lots of work to do but Las Vegas has an experienced head coach in Pete Carroll to lead the way
Worst-to-first for the Silver & Black?
Now, if you chuckled in disbelief with a hint of sarcasm, you can easily be forgiven. After all, the Las Vegas Raiders are the antithesis of consistent winner. But if you got goose bumps and have unwavering belief the Las Vegas Raiders can shed the label of perennial loser, good on you.
Because that’s the line of thinking the Silver & Black’s premier player Maxx Crosby has.
“Anytime you go out there, you want to be in a position to win,” Crosby said two weeks ago at the annual Sack Summit, per The Athletic’s Tashan Reed. “Individual success and things like that are awesome, but it’s not why you play the game. You play to win. We just saw it in the NBA: OKC, just a couple years ago, was one of the worst teams in the league. But they had a lot of young guys, they trusted the process, they developed and now they’re the world champions.
“We’re trying to win. I want to win so badly. I put everything into it. I want everybody else to think like that. And that’s been my goal, just bringing as many guys along as I possibly can.”
By The Numbers
Maxx Crosby, Defensive End
Since entering the league as a fourth-round pick (106th overall) in the 2019 NFL Draft, the best mark the Raiders have sported in Crosby’s six seasons is the 10-7 overall finish in 2021 that saw the team fall to the Cincinnati Bengals in the Wild Card round of the playoffs.
Heading into Year 7 with yet another regime calling the shots, the belief the 6-foot-5 and 255-pound defensive end continues to put out in the universe is commendable. Crosby turns 28 on August 22 and is coming off a 2024 campaign that saw him play the least amount of games in his career (12 with 12 starts).
But, despite all that, the new Silver & Black shot callers — general manager John Spytek and head coach Pete Carroll — made sure the entire NFL world knew how valuable Crosby is the the franchise as the Raiders handed the pass rusher a rich three-year, $106.5 million contract extension that gave the Eastern Michigan product $91.5 million guaranteed.
Crosby and the Raiders are now tied at the hip through the 2029 season (if the contract sees it’s entire length without another extension) and the edge rusher hits unrestricted free agency at age 33 in 2030.
“It’s an honor, obviously, having the Raiders with a new...
