The Maxx Crosby trade machine is already humming again as the NFL season opens, but one report says the Dallas Cowboys are not the team to watch this time around.
Crosby is set to play for the Las Vegas Raiders in their first game of the season, even though his name spent plenty of the offseason in trade chatter. That noise picked up after he was reportedly traded to the Baltimore Ravens before the deal fell apart when Crosby failed his physical and ended up back with the Raiders.
That kind of attention has become routine for Crosby. He tends to sit near the center of almost every trade conversation involving a star player, and that trend continued this week when The Ringer’s Tom Pelissero reported that the Los Angeles Rams had "called and kept tabs" on Crosby during the offseason and may have been more interested than many realized.
Now the Dallas angle is back in the conversation. A reporter for the Dallas Morning News brought up the possibility of a Crosby-to-Cowboys move again as the season begins, noting that Dallas had interest in him over the summer but never got a deal done.
Still, that reporter is not buying the fit. In a feature published Thursday, he said the trade "won't be for Maxx Crosby."
"It’s worth pointing out that the Cowboys were seriously interested in Crosby this offseason," he states. "They were willing to offer multiple picks in the 2026 NFL draft to make it happen, including a first-round pick. I'm not sold on them being OK with the same knee situation that caused the Ravens to abandon their deal with the Raiders, however."
So while Crosby trade rumors never seem to stay quiet for long, this latest version appears to be another case of noise more than action.
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