Winners and losers from the Maxx Crosby trade: Ravens’ pass rush, Lamar Jackson and John Harbaugh

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The Ravens’ trade for Las Vegas Raiders star pass rusher Maxx Crosby can’t be finalized until Wednesday.

That won’t stop the NFL cognoscenti from breaking down every angle of one of the league’s most seismic swaps this offseason.

Here are nine winners and losers from the deal, which will send a pair of first-round picks to the Raiders in exchange for the five-time Pro Bowler. All stats are courtesy of Pro Football Focus, Sports Info Solutions and the NFL’s Next Gen Stats unless otherwise noted.

Winners

Ravens’ pass rush: The Ravens have had edge rushers rack up double-digit sack totals in recent years. Outside linebackers Kyle Van Noy (12.5) and Odafe Oweh (10) did it in 2024, and Jadeveon Clowney (9.5) and Justin Houston (9.5) came close each of the two prior years. But not since Terrell Suggs have they had an alpha like Crosby.

Under former coach John Harbaugh, the Ravens’ defense had to rely on schematic one-upsmanship to tilt the game’s gravity in their favor on drop-backs. Crosby is a gravitational force unto himself. He changes the math by drawing double teams, then sometimes beating them.

Since his arrival in the NFL seven years ago, only four players have more sacks than Crosby (69.5). Last season, despite playing just 155 pass rush snaps with a lead in his 15 games for a 3-14 Raiders team, he finished with 10 sacks and 53 pressures. Outside linebacker Tavius Robinson, who played 151 pass rush snaps with a lead in his 10 appearances, led the Ravens’ edge rushers with just 4.5 sacks and 18 pressures. Rookie outside linebacker Mike Green had 3.5 sacks and 34 pressures while getting 239 pass rush snaps with a lead.

Crosby wins with his revved-up motor. He has one of the NFL’s fastest get-off times, averaging 0.78 seconds before crossing the line of scrimmage in 2025. Only the Cleveland Browns’ Myles Garrett, San Francisco 49ers’ Nick Bosa and Cincinnati Bengals’ Trey Hendrickson were quicker among defensive linemen. And if Crosby’s burst and bend don’t lead him to the quarterback, his relentless pursuit often does.

In Las Vegas, Crosby’s biggest hurdles to pass rush production were more often structural than personal. Entering Week 11 last season, he’d been chip-blocked or double-teamed on a career-high 32.3% of his pass rushes and had been limited to a 6.2% pressure rate when facing extra help.

If Crosby commands the same respect in Baltimore, the Ravens would welcome the trickle-down opportunities. Defensive lineman Travis Jones, who led the team with five sacks last season, was frequently double-teamed. In 2024, it was defensive lineman Nnamdi Madubuike whom offensive coordinators tried to scheme out of games. (Madubuike’s 2026 status remains uncertain as he recovers from a season-ending neck injury.) Green and Robinson, meanwhile, should earn more one-on-one matchups when lined up opposite Crosby.

The Ravens ranked near the bottom of the league last season in pressure rate and sack rate. Even if outside linebacker Dre’Mont Jones is not re-signed, that should change in a hurry.

Ravens’ run defense: The NFL’s best defenses generally look the same before the snap: two deep safeties, a light box, five or six defensive backs on the field, an open invitation for offenses to run the ball. But not every team’s front can manage. Hard-nosed run defenders are required.

Among star edge rushers, Crosby might be the poster child for edge setters. Last year, he had 37 tackles for zero or negative yards, tied for the second most in the NFL. He led all edge rushers with 33 stops — tackles that constitute a “failure” for the offense — and ranked 34th overall in run stop rate (8.3%). Crosby was also first at the position in total run stops in 2022 and 2023.

The Ravens don’t need a reminder of Crosby’s run-stuffing qualities. He dropped running back Derrick Henry behind the line of scrimmage twice in a 2024 Raiders upset win in Baltimore and finished with six tackles overall, including two sacks.

Crosby’s motor drives his run defense as well. Over the past four seasons, when active, he never played less than 94% of the Raiders’ defensive snaps in a single year. But his rate of tackles missed or broken against him was better than the league average in each.

The Ravens bounced back from a porous, injury-marred start last year to finish No. 10 overall in run defense, according to FTN. If Madubuike can return, if inside linebacker Teddye Buchanan or Trenton Simpson can offer solid snaps next to starter Roquan Smith, and if Green can improve on a promising season against the run, the Ravens should have one of the NFL’s sturdiest run defenses.

Lamar Jackson’s potential new deal: The Ravens don’t currently have the space to fit Crosby’s $30 million base salary on their books. According to Over the Cap, they’ll need to clear over $12 million by Wednesday, when the new league year opens, to be compliant.

The Ravens’ best hope in getting there: a contract extension for Jackson, whose cap hit each of the next two years is an untenable $74.5 million. A restructure would also help clear space for Crosby, but owner Steve Bisciotti was hopeful in January that a top-of-the-market deal would bolster their flexibility in free agency.

“You can play with that money all you want. That’s not what we want,” Bisciotti said. “We want another window, and Lamar knows that. I think that he’s amenable to doing something that mirrors the last deal he did, although the annual number will be a little higher. … The urgency of that matters to me because we’ve got free agents, and I don’t want to go into free agency with that hanging over our head.”

An offseason without an extension would hang over Jackson’s head throughout the 2026 season — and first-year coach Jesse Minter’s, too. Both would be happy to put the uncertainty to rest.

Jackson’s auspicious tweets: On April 25, 2023, Jackson tweeted a GIF of SpongeBob SquarePants. Behind the scenes, after more than two years of off-and-on negotiations, Jackson and general manager Eric DeCosta were finally close on a deal. Two days later, Jackson agreed in principle to a five-year, $260 million extension.

On Friday, Jackson went viral again. This time, there was less lag time. Less than eight hours after Jackson tweeted a GIF of Denzel Washington from the movie “Training Day” with the caption “Boom,” news broke that Crosby had been traded.

Losers

Ravens’ spending power: DeCosta said the Ravens were hoping to go shopping this offseason for “a couple of big-ticket items.” Crosby was among the biggest tickets available.

Will there be space for another in Baltimore? The murky accounting around a possible extension for Jackson and a possible restructure of Crosby’s deal makes the guesswork difficult.

Even if DeCosta has the cap space this year to bring back Pro Bowl center Tyler Linderbaum on a market-setting extension, would the finances work in 2027? In 2028? According to Over the Cap, the Ravens have the NFL’s second-lowest and 10th-lowest cap space over those two years, respectively.

Maybe Linderbaum and Crosby were in DeCosta’s plans all along. Linderbaum’s destination will likely be known before Crosby’s deal is finalized. But, if the Ravens spend on two big-ticket items, they’ll have to skimp on smaller-ticket items — an extension for tight end Charlie Kolar, perhaps, or a midlevel contract for a proven third safety.

Hopes for a permanently open Super Bowl window: After the Ravens’ 2023 season ended short of its championship dreams, DeCosta was asked about the widespread personnel changes that loomed in free agency. He finished his response by talking about windows.

“I don’t really subscribe to the idea of windows opening and closing,” DeCosta said at a February 2024 news conference. “I’d like to believe that, with careful roster building and good drafting and development of players, the window is going to always be open.”

Maybe so. But the Ravens have always been a draft-driven team. And, by trading two first-round picks, DeCosta has shoved the window even more wide open for the next few years of Jackson’s prime and perhaps jeopardized it for the few years after it.

Is the trade an acknowledgement of Jackson’s mortality as a dual-threat quarterback? A stroke of self-preservation from a GM who watched his good friend lose his job after winning two division titles in three years? A bet that Crosby can do more in Baltimore than the No. 14 overall pick in a lackluster Day 1 draft pool ever could? The process doesn’t matter now. Only the results do.

First-round draft value: The Ravens aren’t used to picking as high in the draft as No. 14. They’re even more unfamiliar with sitting out the first round entirely, having made a first-round selection in 13 straight years, with two picks in three of those drafts.

They’d better get used to waiting. By trading out of the first round, they’ve all but abandoned hope of landing Penn State guard Olaivavega Ioane, Utah offensive lineman Spencer Fano and USC wide receiver Makai Lemon, all projected top-20 picks and potential ready-made starters who’d been linked to the Ravens at No. 14 overall.

Their hopes for a successful draft next month now rest on Day 2 and Day 3, where they’re expected to have 10 picks total. NFL Network draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah, a former Ravens scout, tweeted Thursday that the “sweet spot” in this draft will be in the range of picks No. 50-75, where he expects little difference in the grade of prospects available. The Ravens, who have the Nos. 45 and 80 overall selections, will need more from their Day 2 crop, a weakness in recent years.

DeCosta’s draft pains could be felt most acutely next year, however. In a best-case scenario, the Ravens win the Super Bowl this season and team officials sleep easy knowing they’re handing over only the No. 32 overall pick. In a worst-case scenario, the 2026 season goes sideways and the Ravens lose a top-10 or top-20 pick in a class considered to be among the most talented in recent memory.

Podcasting jokes: Bad news for all the Ravens fans who have blamed cornerback Marlon Humphrey’s podcast for his disappointing 2025 and are overjoyed by the team’s trade for Crosby: He has a podcast, too. Maybe they’ll do a crossover episode.

John Harbaugh: Over his final five seasons in Baltimore, the Ravens blew an NFL-high 16 leads in the final five minutes of games, according to ESPN, five more than any other team. If Harbaugh had had a closer like Crosby on the field, maybe he’d still be coaching in Baltimore.