Maxx Crosby Trade Is Dead: Failed Physical Unravels the NFL's Biggest Offseason Deal
The blockbuster trade of the 2026 NFL offseason collapsed in real time Tuesday night. One failed physical. Two first-round picks returned. And one of the best defensive players in football suddenly back on the market.
What Happened — and When
Four days ago this was the cleanest story in the league. The Baltimore Ravens were acquiring five-time Pro Bowl edge rusher Maxx Crosby from the Las Vegas Raiders in exchange for first-round picks in 2026 and 2027 — the first time in franchise history that Baltimore had traded a first-round pick for a veteran player.
Then Tuesday evening, everything fell apart. The Las Vegas Raiders announced that the trade with the Ravens for Crosby is off. NFL Network's Dianna Russini reported that Crosby did not pass his physical, with Mike Garafolo confirming a medical reason behind the decision. The Ravens get their first-round picks back.
The Raiders' full statement read: "The Baltimore Ravens have backed out of our trade agreement for Maxx Crosby. We will have no further comment at this time."
The Knee Injury at the Center of Everything
The failed physical didn't come out of nowhere. Crosby had been frustrated by the way the Raiders handled his knee injury late last season, eventually leading to him being excused from the team facility with two games remaining in a lost season for Las Vegas. He is heading into his age-29 season.
Trades cannot be official until the 2026 league year begins Wednesday at 4 p.m. ET, and the Raiders dropped the bombshell the night before that window opened. Crosby had posted on social media Tuesday morning that he was already in Baltimore — making the reversal all the more jarring.
What It Means for the Ravens
Baltimore built its offseason around this deal. The Athletic's Jeff Zrebiec wrote that the Ravens were "short two significant assets and a chunk of cap space" earmarked for other needs, with heavy lifting still required to address the offensive and defensive lines and the secondary. Now those two first-rounders are back — but so is the gaping need at edge rusher.
Crosby's 69.5 career sacks since 2019 is more than double what anyone has produced in Baltimore over that same span. New head coach Jesse Minter, taking over as defensive play-caller, loses the marquee piece his system was reportedly built around.
What It Means for the Raiders — and Who Else Is Watching
Las Vegas faces a sudden pivot. The Raiders had been running aggressively in free agency — most notably signing Ravens Pro Bowl center Tyler Linderbaum to a record contract — on the assumption that Crosby's $30.69 million cap number was off the books. That cap math now requires urgent recalculation.
The Cowboys had offered a first and a second before Baltimore outbid them. The Chicago Bears, who had previously been linked to Crosby and appeared to be out of the running, suddenly have an unexpected second chance. General manager Ryan Poles and the Bears' front office may now have to reevaluate their entire offseason strategy.
Whether another team will pass Crosby on a physical remains an open question. He is heading into an age-29 season with a documented knee issue — and a two-first-round haul may no longer be attainable on the open market.
The Verdict
This Crosby non-trade will go down in trade infamy — drawing comparisons to the 2004 Terrell Owens situation, where an arbitrator voided a Baltimore-San Francisco deal before sending the receiver to Philadelphia instead.
NFL Network's Ian Rapoport put it plainly: "Trades are not official until the league year begins." Twenty-four hours from a done deal to no deal at all.
