Maxx Crosby may not need any extra fuel heading into 2026, but Dolphins left tackle Patrick Paul handed him some anyway.
With Miami set to open the regular season on Sunday, Paul was asked Tuesday about the challenge of lining up against Crosby, and he did not exactly keep the praise plain and simple. He called the Raiders edge rusher “a dynamic player,” but also laid out what Miami will try to do to him from the start.
“So with him, just beating him to the spot, getting your hands on him, getting him off his game. He likes to play with a lot of swagger, so just getting him displaced off his game.
Get him off his spots, putting your hands on him, being aggressive and just getting him out of his game. I think once you get him out of his game it’s pretty much it.”
Paul doubled down from there, saying Crosby’s motor drives the Raiders’ defense and suggesting Miami could try to rattle him with words as well as hands.
“He’s a high motor player. I think their defense runs off his motor… I feel like he’s a hot head, so a lot of those things you can get into his game with that, but he’s a great player so you just got to stay on it all four quarters.”
That kind of talk is the sort of thing that tends to travel quickly, and in Crosby’s case it arrives at a time when his name has already been tied to plenty of noise.
Crosby has not said much publicly about the botched trade that brought him back to the Raiders, but former Raiders defensive tackle Gerald McCoy said in July that Crosby has a chip on his shoulder heading into the season. McCoy said on the Rich Eisen Show that he had spoken with Crosby and came away with the impression that the pass rusher is carrying plenty of anger with him.
“Maxx Crosby has a point to prove. He’s a little pissed off,” McCoy said.
“Actually, he’s a lot of pissed off. I was just with Maxx in Vegas. He has a point to prove and Maxx is extremely upset and he’s going to have these guys on the mission.”
When Eisen asked who Crosby was upset at, McCoy pointed to the weirdness of the situation itself.
“He loves the Raiders, for one,” McCoy answered.
“But he was traded. Okay.
Then he was given back. So it’s almost like they saying, ‘We don’t really need you, but we need you.’
And then the other team is saying, ‘You just kind of lost a step. We don’t really trust it.’
Maxx is out to prove a point. I’m Maxx Crosby for a reason and he’s going to bring the guys with him.”
The Crosby chatter does not stop there, either. ESPN’s Adam Schefter said a few months ago that he believed Crosby could be a “Raider for life,” but he revisited the topic last month and raised the possibility that things could shift if the Raiders stumble early.
“I know a lot of people are thinking that Max Crosby wants to be trading. He wants to be there right now. And I think he’s going to be there,” Schefter said on the Pat McAfee Show.
“I think the real question with Maxx Crosby and his future in Vegas comes down to what happens if this team doesn’t perform well. What if there’s a contender out there before the trade deadline that wants to beef up its pass rush?
Could we see a team later this season, if the Raiders season is slipping away, make a run at Maxx Crosby? I could see that being a possibility in October.
That I see.”
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