INDIANAPOLIS — It was a quiet week at the NFL Scouting Combine, with all of the quarterback talk largely on ice and with the lack of a dynamic top college prospect. But behind the scenes, the Raiders were working to make defensive end Maxx Crosby one of the highest-paid defensive players in the league.
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Contract extension talks have begun and are going well, according to league sources, and there is a very good chance Crosby will get a new deal before quarterback Derek Carr.
Crosby, 24, is entering the final year of his contract and is coming off a Pro Bowl season in which he had eight sacks, 30 quarterback hits and 13 tackles for loss. Crosby also led the NFL with 92 pressures, according to TruMedia. That was well ahead of the Rams’ Aaron Donald, who was second with 77, and far outpaced the Steelers’ T.J. Watt, who finished 10th with 61.
One of the team captains, Crosby has not missed a game and has 25 sacks since the Raiders drafted him in the fourth round in 2019.
New Raiders general manager Dave Ziegler was asked specifically about a Crosby extension when he spoke with reporters on Wednesday.
“As we’re kind of going through free agency and getting to the draft, there are going to be some of those organic conversations you’re going to have. I wouldn’t say we’re there yet,” Ziegler said. “I know it’s a curious question and I get that, but we’re just trying to take so many small bites right now.
“In due time, we’ll look at all those things. But it’s always good to have good players.”
Pittsburgh’s Watt, last season’s NFL defensive player of the year, is the league’s highest-paid edge rusher with a 2022 salary of $24 million and an average annual salary of $28 million. Watt is followed by the Chargers’ Joey Bosa at $27 million per year and the Browns’ Myles Garrett at $25 million per season.
Crosby isn’t quite at their level — Watt is a four-time Pro Bowler and four-time All-Pro, Bosa is a four-time Pro Bowler and Garrett has made three Pro Bowls and three All-Pro teams — but a salary north of $20 million per season seems like a good starting point. Nick Bosa, the 49ers’ standout who beat out Crosby for NFL defensive rookie of the year in 2019, is also up for an extension this offseason that could further reset the market.
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A good comparison for Crosby might be Chiefs defensive end Frank Clark, who signed a five-year, $105.5 million deal in 2019, giving him an annual salary of $20.8 million. One could argue that Crosby is already a better player — Clark has 18 1/2 sacks and 24 tackles for loss the last three seasons, while Crosby has 25 and 43 plus those league-leading pressures in 2021. And while Clark has had off-field issues — he was arrested twice last offseason on separate weapons charges — Crosby speaks often of his sobriety the last two years to build awareness and has become a popular figure in the Las Vegas community.
(Curiously — or sadly — the Raiders already have three edge rushers with 2022 salary-cap hits among the top 30 in the league at the position. Yannick Ngakoue, who had a strong debut season with the Raiders with 10 sacks, is 18th with a cap hit of $15 million, while Clelin Ferrell is 26th at $9.98 million and Carl Nassib is 27th at $9.65 million.)
Crosby — who played through injuries in what was considered a down 2020 season — made an appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show” on Thursday and was asked why he got so much better last season.
“I feel like nobody outworked me and that’s what I’m going to continue to do going forward,” he said.
That approach did raise some eyebrows at the recent Pro Bowl, where Crosby won defensive MVP honors with two sacks and three pass deflections. Crosby told McAfee that he got a fiery text from former Raiders defensive line coach Rod Marinelli after some video emerged of Crosby going through the motions at a Pro Bowl practice.
So Crosby turned it up a notch the rest of the week and during the game.
“There were some guys on the field that were a little sensitive, but it is what it is,” Crosby said. “We’re in Vegas and I had to go out there and put a show on for our fans.”
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As for Carr, he is one of many starting quarterbacks in a holding pattern. It appears as if Aaron Rodgers and Russell Wilson might stay put in Green Bay and Seattle, respectively, while Carson Wentz is a goner in Indianapolis and Kyler Murray may throw a fit if the Cardinals don’t give him a new contract soon. The Deshaun Watson trade rumors have finally died down as no one seems to want to deal for a guy with 22 pending civil suits, no matter what his agents or some members of the national media say.
New Raiders coach Josh McDaniels answered a pointed question Wednesday by saying Carr was “absolutely” the Raiders’ Week 1 quarterback next season. Ziegler later walked it back, saying that was the plan at least.
There are no absolutes with Carr at this point. He is entering the last year of a five-year, $125 million contract, and it seems like the Raiders would prefer to do a shorter deal than a longer-term one. That would cost them around $40 million a year, including a large signing bonus with upfront cash — which has never been owner Mark Davis’ style.
Washington called every team in the league about the availability of quarterbacks, and other teams have asked the Raiders about Carr as well, sources said. That’s not really news, as questions can range from an officially-sounding phone call to late-night chatter over cocktails at Indianapolis’ Prime 47 steakhouse or the JW Marriott lobby bar.
Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said as much when asked about Wilson on Wednesday.
“It’s a quarterback world right now,” he said. “There’s a lot of people taking shots, a lot of lines in the water right now, trying to guess and see what’s going to happen.”
Once the fish start jumping, we might see what teams are willing to offer for a starting quarterback. Teams like Tampa Bay, Pittsburgh, Denver and Indianapolis may think they are a proven arm from being a contender again, and may not be terribly excited about waiting to sign Marcus Mariota in free agency.
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For now, the new regime and Carr are on good terms and pointing to the future. McDaniels said negotiations on an extension haven’t begun yet and is enjoying getting to know Carr as a person, while looking forward to coaching him.
Carr, during a recent event to promote next month’s Altar Men’s Conference that he is hosting in Las Vegas, said McDaniels and Ziegler have been “super awesome.”
He wouldn’t discuss his next contract, but told the Las Vegas Review-Journal, “I’ll do what I can to continue to bless my family and bless people all around the world.”
Carr is scheduled to make $19.8 million in 2022, which ranks 15th among NFL quarterbacks.
“There is no rush to get something done,” as one knowledgeable person told me this week. “Only the media is in a rush.”
For the time being, Ziegler will continue to look at the cards in his hand, while keeping them close to his Raiders pullover. (The fact that neither Ziegler nor McDaniels would say whether 2021 first-rounder Alex Leatherwood is a tackle or a guard is a bad sign to me — sorry, simply playing a lot of games is not a strength.)
Free agency starts March 16 — with the legal tampering period beginning two days earlier — the Raiders pick 22nd in the NFL Draft on April 28 and then they must decide on fifth-year contract options for running back Josh Jacobs, safety Johnathan Abram and Ferrell by May 22. (McDaniels seems pretty high on Jacobs.)
“There’s not a lot of sleep, that’s for sure,” Ziegler said before he left Indianapolis. “Learning (our own) roster is the foundational piece of scouting. So that took a lot of time and effort.
“When you evaluate every single guy that’s under contract and every free agent, those are a lot of players to evaluate along with all the new things that you kind of get faced with when you take over one of these positions … so it’s a ton of time management.”
(Top photo of Maxx Crosby: Andy Lyons / Getty Images)