Can Raiders dunk Maxx Crosby’s NBA comparison?

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

• 2024: 12 games (12 starts), 45 total tackles, 17 tackles for loss, 7.5 sacks, 20 quarterback hits, five pass deflections
• Career: 2019-24, 95 games (89 starts), 366 total tackles, 105 tackles for loss, 59.5 sacks, 144 quarterback hits, 23 pass deflections, 9 forced fumbles, 3 fumble recoveries

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 staff and new regime come in and show me that type of respect,” Crosby said of his three-year extension. “It means the world. Like Spytek said, it’s not about what I’ve done, it’s about what I’m about to do. … And we’ve got a lot of work to do.”

There’s reason for optimism that backs Crosby’s sentiments, however.

In come Spytek and, more importantly, Carroll to lead the way. The head honcho replaces a very inexperienced (but plenty of machismo and sound bites) coach Antonio Pierce. He may be 73 years old, but Carroll still shows signs of uncanny energy and was frequently seen spry and moving around like a much younger coach during Raiders OTAs and mandatory minicamp last month.

That energy has transitioned well to the players and many speak of the game being fun again under the guidance of Carroll.

The GM and head coach combo also infused the roster with intriguing young talents in the draft but the biggest get — that will likely have the largest impact on Las Vegas’ win-loss record — was trading for quarterback Geno Smith. It’s a signal caller that has unwavering belief in Carroll, a coach who helped resurrect a flatlined career. If there was one thing Pierce lacked during his reign as Raiders head man, it was quarterback.

Carroll has his.

And now we’ll get to see if the Carroll-Smith combination can revive a Raiders offense that was the often the ultimate “this isn’t how you run an NFL offense” teach tape in 2024. In comes Chip Kelly — a failed NFL head man but renowned offensive play caller — as offensive coordinator providing more optimism that Las Vegas found the right man to deliver an explosive, if not, efficient offense.

Yet, for all the optimism, tempered expectations is equally as proper. There was once another bold head coach who engineered excitement and brought back boisterous bravado. I mean, come on, who could forget the all-time speech Jon Gruden dropped on Hard Knocks.

It’s just too bad, the Silver & Black nightmare continued — even in Chucky 2.0.

We’ll find out soon enough if the Raiders can dunk Crosby’s NBA comparison. The Thunder did trust the process and climbed atop the league mountain. NFL parity suggest the Raiders can do the same. But like Crosby noted, there’s a lot of hard work that needs to be done. Are we in for a 1998 St. Louis Rams’ turnaround?

That was the “Greatest Show on Turf” offense led by Kurt Warner as the Rams’ won Super Bowl XXXIV.

That’d be quite nice, wouldn’t it?