maxx crosby
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Maxx Crosby with Trey Hendrickson.
There are bound to be conspiracies about why exactly the Baltimore Ravens’ trade for Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby fell apart for years to come. The fact that the Ravens signed Trey Hendrickson less than 24 hours after backing out of the deal only fueled the conspiracies.
The Ravens and Hendrickson claimed that they were hoping to pair him with Crosby, but they weren’t comfortable with his physical. Baltimore didn’t do anything illegal, so there won’t be repercussions from the NFL, but that’s not going to slow down the talk of them doing the Raiders dirty.
Hendrickson himself obviously didn’t have anything to do with what the Ravens did. It sounds like he truly believed he was going to play with Crosby and was really excited about the idea of having another star pass rusher to work with.
“I was looking forward to rushing with him,” Hendrickson said on “The Set” podcast. “Like what an incredible opportunity that would have been to have a bookends like that terrorizing quarterbacks, getting running backs to the ground. That’s what got me excited.”
The Crosby-Hendrickson duo would’ve been one of the best in the NFL, but it’s difficult to see how the Ravens would’ve actually made that work.
John Spytek Talks Relationship With Crosby
Crosby wanted to be traded by the Raiders, but both sides handled the situation with class. That helped easily mend fences between the team and the player after the trade didn’t happen.
General manager John Spytek isn’t sad to have Crosby back in the building, and thinks the two still have a strong relationship.
“My relationship with Maxx since I’ve gotten here has been great,” Spytek said, via Raiders.com. “We had a lot of conversations throughout the season, at the end of the season obviously, through the offseason and obviously we were presented with a difficult decision to make. Things have a way of going a certain way and working out the way they’re supposed to. We welcomed him like he never left, because he really never did.”
Hendrickson Thinks Ravens Can Make Super Bowl
There’s going to be a lot of pressure on the Ravens to be good this season. Even non-Raiders fans don’t think they were ethical with how they handled the Crosby trade, so there’s going to be a lot of people rooting for their downfall.
Hendrickson doesn’t seem worried. He believes the Ravens have a real chance to win the Super Bowl.
“When I look back, maybe I’ll be more appreciative of how special that team was, but right now I’m on the hunt for one thing and that’s to win it all,” Hendrickson said. “I’m incredibly blessed to be in an opportunity representing organizations that have done it. I’m excited to be a part of something that there is potential. When you’re talking about No. 8 [Lamar Jackson]throwing the ball around, like, you know it’s a quarterback-driven league. Sean Payton talked about that when I was a rookie [in New Orleans]. There might be 32 teams, but there’s about seven or eight that can win it all, and we’ve got one of them.”