After a rough start to the 2023 season, the Las Vegas Raiders are starting to turn things around. The team is 3-3 and has won back-to-back games.
Fans were already calling for head coach Josh McDaniels to lose his job following the 1-3 start but it’s clear the players haven’t given up on him yet. In fact, the players are big fans of McDaniels, according to defensive end Maxx Crosby.
“Coach McDaniels has done an awesome job and the guys love him,” Crosby said during an October 17 appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show.” “You can read all the headlines, the negativity and things like that. When you’re losing, that’s what comes with it. When you win football games, people start talking about the positives.”
The Athletic’s Dianna Russini reported on October 14 that McDaniels “could be in trouble” if the Raiders kept losing but the team has been playing better in recent weeks. Crosby is a team captain and arguably the best player on the roster. He should have his finger on the pulse of the locker room so if anybody knows how players feel about McDaniels, it’ll be him.
“Coach McDaniels has done an awesome job and the guys love him..
I have a ton of respect for him and we have a great relationship” ~ @CrosbyMaxx
Maxx Crosby Says He Has ‘Great Relationship’ With Josh McDaniels
Josh McDaniels’ first season with the Raiders was rough. He took a team that made the playoffs in 2021 and led them to a 6-11 season. This season got off to another ugly start but it’s looking like he could be turning things around.
Maxx Crosby is an important player to have in your corner as he’s one of the faces of the Raiders right now. He gave some insight into how his relationship with McDaniels is right now.
“Coach McDaniels is with us every single day, he’s consistent and that’s all you can ask for in a head coach,” Crosby said. “He’s super hard on us, but we know what we want and know what brand of football we’re trying to play. I feel like we’re getting closer and closer to that every single week … I have a ton of respect for him and we have a great relationship.”
If the Raiders keep winning and compete for a playoff spot, questions about McDaniels will start to fade away but he still has work to do to get the fans on his side.
Josh McDaniels Talks Maxx Crosby Snap Counts
For three straight games, Maxx Crosby has played 100% of the Raiders’ defensive snaps. That’s not a surprise as Crosby has rarely missed snaps throughout his career and has yet to miss a game.
However, the Raiders aren’t just blindly putting him on the field without any preparation. Josh McDaniels explained what the team does to get Crosby ready to play a lot of snaps during the games.
“It is something we talk a lot about,” McDaniels said during his October 16 media availability when talking about Corsby’s snap count. “I would say there’s an element of taking the whole week in totality and trying to figure out how do we manage the week so that we get the most bang for our buck in the game. And so, sometimes — you’ve seen he’s been limited, and again, he’s dealing with some little things here and there, too.
“But the reality is if you limit certain things during the course of the week so that you get 60-some snaps out of him on game day, then that’s the give and the take. There might be times where we go ahead and try not to do that as much. I’d say when we have the ball as much as we did in the first half yesterday [Sunday], that certainly can alleviate some stress on somebody like that in terms of the snap count getting crazy early in the game.”
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Raiders DE Maxx Crosby Sends Strong Message on Josh McDaniels