Two months after Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti made the bold decision to fire longtime head coach John Harbaugh, it was time for general manager Eric DeCosta to swing for the fences to try to maximize the remaining Super Bowl window with two-time MVP quarterback Lamar Jackson.
DeCosta did exactly that by making the most lucrative trade in the history of the franchise on Friday night.
In a deal that won’t be completed until the start of the new league year on Wednesday afternoon, Baltimore is set to acquire five-time Pro Bowl edge rusher Maxx Crosby from Las Vegas in exchange for 2026 and 2027 first-round picks. It marks the first time in franchise history that the Ravens will have traded as much as a single first-round pick for a player, but they’ve finally landed the top-shelf edge rusher that’s been missing from their defense since the prime years of franchise legend Terrell Suggs. It’s a move that will certainly please new defensive-minded head coach Jesse Minter as well as a fan base that’s coveted a game-wrecker at the edge position for years.
The 28-year-old Crosby is coming off the fourth double-digit sack season of his seven-year career and has collected 69 1/2 sacks in 110 games. But dissatisfied with just one trip to the playoffs in his time with the Raiders and facing the prospects of starting over with another new head coach in 2026, Crosby was eyeing a fresh start only a year after signing a contract extension that runs through 2029. The 2019 fourth-round pick out of Eastern Michigan is scheduled to make $30 million in base salary for 2026 and salaries ranging from $26.5 million to $29 million in the three seasons to follow, but that deal is now likely to be revised with the Ravens needing to create salary cap space to address other positions of need on both sides of the ball this offseason.
The blockbuster trade for Crosby comes after years of disappointing draft returns at outside linebacker with DeCosta selecting Jaylon Ferguson (2019), Odafe Oweh (2021), David Ojabo (2022), Adisa Isaac (2024), and Mike Green (2025) in the first three rounds to try to find a edge-rushing presence that would approach the impact of Suggs, a seven-time Pro Bowl outside linebacker and former NFL Defensive Player of the Year who departed after the 2018 season. To their credit, the Ravens had leaned on value signings, the 2020 third-round selection of two-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Nnamdi Madubuike, and scheme to cobble together some formidable pass rushes at times in the regular season, but their inability to get to quarterbacks consistently with a four-man rush often proved costly late in games and in January.
With Madubuike missing most of the 2025 with a neck injury, the Ravens finished tied for 28th in the NFL in sacks with 30 last year. That marked their lowest total in a season since 2010.
8
“We certainly know that we have to augment the pass rush and improve there,” DeCosta said at the scouting combine in Indianapolis last month. “When we look at the best defenses, we see a ferocious pass rush, and that was lacking this year for different reasons. It’s something that we feel strongly that we can attack this year in the offseason, whether it’s through free agency or the draft.”
Little did anyone know that it would come via the trade of two first-round picks with Baltimore valuing the draft as much as any team in the NFL over the last three decades. The 14th overall selection that will now go to the Raiders was set to be the Ravens’ earliest draft pick since 2022 when they selected three-time Pro Bowl safety Kyle Hamilton.
The Ravens saw firsthand what kind of impact Crosby can make on a game in their two career meetings in 2021 and 2024 when he registered a combined four sacks, six tackles for a loss, 12 tackles, and seven quarterback hits. Those performances resulted in a pair of upset victories for the Raiders.
