As the hours pass following the Baltimore Ravens cancelling the Maxx Crosby trade, more and more information is coming to light that adds to the theory that the Ravens had buyer's remorse about the trade.
Of course, the Ravens gave up two first-round picks for Crosby, which was a monster package, even for a player of Crosby's stature.
But the Ravens backed out of the deal on Tuesday night, with the reason being Crosby failed a physical as he recovers from offseason knee surgery.
The problem with that reasoning is everyone knew Crosby was recovering from knee surgery, so he was never going to pass a physical with flying colors.
Some might say that the Ravens were just being responsible and didn't want to take the risk, but others believe Baltimore just had cold feet and used the failed physical as an excuse to get out of the trade with the Las Vegas Raiders.
According to The Athletic's Dianna Russini, the Ravens had all the information they needed and knew full well what Crosby's situation was.
As a result, the belief around the league is that the reason for them nixing the trade really had to do with Baltimore getting cold feet rather than truly having concern over Crosby's knee.
"It’s been made clear by multiple people around the NFL at all levels that Baltimore had all the information and understood where Maxx Crosby’s knee was in terms of his recovery timeline," Russini reported. "Many in the league believe GM Eric DeCosta and the Ravens ultimately just got cold feet."
In what is certainly not a help to putting that belief to bed is the fact that the Ravens turned around and signed Trey Hendrickson just hours after the cancelled trade.
According to ESPN's Adam Schefter, Baltimore is inking Hendrickson to a four-year, $112 million contract.
So, not only did the Ravens add a star edge rusher without having to give up draft capital, but Hendrickson's $28 million annual average is less than what the Ravens would have paid for Crosby.
It remains to be seen if we'll ever get confirmation one way or the other about what the true motivation was for the Raiders to back out of the Crosby trade, but when you add it all up, it certainly stinks.
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