If the San Francisco 49ers want to have 2 gimpy and highly paid edge rushers on the roster in 2026, the opportunity might be out there.
Bleacher Report’s Gary Davenport put Las Vegas Raiders edge rusher Maxx Crosby at the top of his list of NFL stars likely headed toward trade requests, with the 49ers predicted as his preferred destination.
Crosby is still recovering from offseason surgery to repair a torn meniscus — the injury that got his trade to the Baltimore Ravens rescinded in March — and signed a 3-year, $106.5 million contract before the 2025 season.
The 49ers’ NFL All-Pro edge rusher, Nick Bosa, only played 3 games in 2025 before he tore his ACL. Bosa is playing on the 5-year, $170 million contract extension he signed before the 2023 season.
“There are multiple contenders who could use the services of an elite edge-rusher who just logged 10 sacks and 28 tackles for loss in an injury-shortened 2025 campaign,” Davenport wrote on July 15. “And Crosby is easily the most valuable trade chip Las Vegas has. Crosby may not be publicly demanding a trade yet, but he wouldn’t be annoyed if he wound up in, say, San Francisco. And that demand may yet come, especially if the Raiders struggle in 2026.”
Maxx Crosby at Center of Infamous Botched Trade
Crosby unwittingly found himself at the center of 1 of the biggest stories of the NFL offseason after the Raiders agreed to trade him to the Ravens in exchange for 2 1st-round picks, only to call off the deal a few days later over concerns about Crosby’s surgically repaired knee.
“The Baltimore Ravens have backed out of our trade agreement for Maxx Crosby,” the Raiders said in a statement shared to ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter’s official X account on March 10. “We will have no further comment at this time.”
According to NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo, it was a medical issue that led to the trade being called off — a medical issue the Ravens were well aware of before agreeing to the deal.
“Maxx Crosby had surgery to repair his meniscus right around the end of the season, and meniscus recoveries take 3-4 months,” NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport said after the news broke. ” … it appears the Ravens are just not comfortable with what they found during the medical exams for Maxx Crosby, so now the trade is off.”
Serious Injury Issues for 49ers at Edge Rusher
The crazy thing about the 49ers and their edge rushers is that Bosa isn’t the only 1 coming back from a serious knee injury — 2025 1st-round pick Mykel Williams has pertained to his recovery from a torn ACL suffered in Week 9 of his rookie season.
The harsh truth is that, unlike Bosa, the No. 11 overall pick wasn’t very good before the injury.
Pro Football Focus NFL reporter Bradley Locker put Williams at the top of his list of players under the most pressure to perform in Year 2.
“Williams was touted as a raw but high-upside prospect coming out of Georgia,” Locker wrote on July 7. “The 49ers took a shot on him with the 11th overall pick in 2025 but will need to see much more of the latter. Williams played only 385 snaps after suffering a torn ACL in Week 9, but the results were generally subpar. His 51.9 PFF pass-rush grade ranked 90th out of 95 qualified edge defenders, as he tallied just 19 pressures on an 8.8% pass-rush win rate. Despite his run-stopping prowess in college, Williams wasn’t dominant in that department either … after Bryce Huff’s retirement, the 49ers are counting on Williams to be a legitimate running mate for the returning Nick Bosa.”
NFL All-Pro Trade Prediction Sees ‘Demand’ for Move to 49ers