The asking price was made clear last week to interested teams. The question now is whether someone is sufficiently interested in sending two first-round picks and a player to the Raiders for defensive end Maxx Crosby.
Over the weekend, Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times explored the question of whether the Buccaneers would do it.
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Most of Stroud’s article focuses on reasons why the Bucs would refrain. One, longtime G.M. Jason Licht rarely trades draft picks. Two, the team’s recent history with respect to the acquisition of edge rushers hasn’t been good.
But they need help at the position. Haason Reddick was a disappointment in 2025, after signing a one-year, $14 million deal. YaYa Diaby is the primary pass rusher. And they have optimism regarding David Walker, a 2025 fourth-round pick who tore an ACL early in training camp.
On the surface, Stroud seems to devote most of the item to explaining why the Buccaneers won’t pull the trigger on a trade for Crosby. On the other hand, it feels like an effort to plant a flag as to the possibility, in the event it happens.
“If Crosby is available, history tells us Licht won’t go after him,” Stroud writes. “But fortune does favor the bold at times.”
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The Raiders may also favor sending Crosby out of the conference. And Raiders minority owner (with real influence over the football operations) Tom Brady may be willing to soften the expectations a bit as a favor to the G.M. who helped Brady get his seventh Super Bowl ring.
For now, it’s something worth keeping an eye on. The Bucs hold the 15th overall pick in the draft. If the Bears, for example, offer the 25th overall pick in 2026 and a first-rounder that could be even lower in 2027, maybe Tampa could attach something less than its first-rounder next year to get it done. The question then would be whether the Raiders want a player with whom the Bucs would be willing to part ways.
While Raiders G.M. John Spytek and coach Klint Kubiak said all the right (and predictable) things about Crosby during the Scouting Combine last week, there’s been nothing to contradict Jay Glazer’s claim from less than four weeks ago that Crosby is “done” with the Raiders.
The Raiders may ultimately have to take the best offer they can get. There’s a chance that the highest 2026 pick they’d acquire would come from Tampa Bay.
