Getty Las Vegas Raiders DE Maxx Crosby.
Maxx Crosby has cemented himself as one of the top defensive ends in the NFL but opinions on him weren’t always high. When he was drafted in the 2019 NFL Draft, he fell all the way to the fourth round before the Las Vegas Raiders selected him.
At that point, Crosby was willing to play for most teams but there was one squad that he knew he didn’t want to get drafted by.
“Pat (Patrick Graham) was in Miami when I was coming into the league,” Crosby said during an October 17 appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show.” “So, I was going on my top 30 visits, and I was in Miami. For the most part, my trip to Miami — I’m not gonna lie — it was rough. All the coaches were super hard on me, and I’m like — I told my agent after — I’m like, ‘I don’t wanna come here.’ I was like, ‘Tell Miami don’t draft me.’
“But my one meeting at Miami that I liked was Pat Graham. And he was so weirdly nice to me, I thought he was being sarcastic.”
At the time, the Dolphins were one of the worst teams in the NFL so Crosby couldn’t foresee how good they’d be now. However, it’s possible he doesn’t become the player he is if he ends up on a team he didn’t want to play for.
Maxx Crosby Is One of the Best Draft Picks of Past 5 Years
Former Raiders general manager Mike Mayock’s track record of draft is suspect, to say the least. While he struggled with early draft picks, he did find some gems later in the draft. The best pick he made was selecting Maxx Crosby in the fourth round of the 2019 NFL Draft.
If that draft was re-done with current knowledge, Crosby is likely a top-five pick. Getting a top-five player in a class in the fourth round is incredible value. While Mayock failed as a general manager, he made one of the best picks of the last decade.
Patrick Graham Praises Maxx Crosby
Though Patrick Graham didn’t get a chance to coach Maxx Crosby while he was the defensive coordinator for the Miami Dolphins, he now gets to coach him on the Raiders. Graham had some high praise for Crosby.
“I mean, he’s relentless,” Graham said of Crosby during his October 17 media availability. “He’s diligent, he’s a smart player who makes good decisions on the field. And it’s all about, to me, the example he sets in terms of how he plays, how he carries himself in the building. So, again, I don’t know how much of an extension of me it is, I just know that he was a good football player before I met him and he’s a football player who is ascending as he gets older and gets more crafty and understands his craft, and he works hard. That’s the main thing.”
Crosby has developed into a leader for the team and arguably their best player. He shows up and plays hard every week. He also rarely misses a snap. He’s a coach’s dream and he only keeps getting better.