As far as the Las Vegas Raiders are concerned, they landed a top-tier talent in free agency when the Maxx Crosby trade was reversed on the eve of free agency.
“I don’t really have an opinion on how it played out, just that Maxx is back,” Raiders general manager John Spytek told the media at the NFL’s annual meetings in Arizona. “He never left. He’s working his ass off to get healthy. He’ll be ready to rock by training camp and we expect him to play a bunch of good football for many years to come still … I would just kind of echo what (Raiders head coach) Klint (Kubiak) said, we got another elite defensive end in free agency, the way it worked out.”
After Kubiak helped the Seattle Seahawks win Super Bowl LX, he took the job as Raiders head coach and was dropped into a contentious situation between the team’s best player and the organization. Kubiak did his part in trying to establish a rapport with Crosby, grabbing a cup of coffee with him hours before he was formally introduced as the Raiders’ head coach.
It was exactly one month removed from that cup of coffee that the Raiders’ trade with the Baltimore Ravens was nixed after Crosby failed Baltimore’s physical.
“You get experience, you go through battles and when things like that come up, you’re ready for them because that’s part of the job,” Kubiak said on Tuesday. “That’s what makes the job fun. It’s never the same day. It’s always different. Going back to Maxx, we lost him, we got him back, our team’s better. Hell yeah.”
Kubiak recalled learning that Crosby would be returning to the Raiders and described it as pure excitement.
“Once it happened, I was really excited,” Kubiak said. “Once (Spytek) came and talked to me about it, we sat down and my first thing was a smile, like, ‘Great, we got Maxx back. You kidding me? That’s great. You got anything else you want to talk about? Alright.’ Our team just got better.”
Kubiak said Crosby was back in the Raiders’ facility the next day, rehabbing as he continues to work hard to get healthy.
“Maxx is the best player on our defense,” Kubiak said. “He’s going to be a leader on our team and a guy we’re counting on to win a lot of games with moving forward.”
The timing of the Crosby debacle was another complicating factor. The trade between the Raiders and Ravens was agreed to three days before the legal tampering period began and five days before the start of the new league year.
The Ravens failed Crosby’s physical the night before free agency officially began, after the Raiders had spent the two days of legal tampering agreeing to numerous free agency contracts, including giving former Ravens center Tyler Linderbaum a contract that made him the highest-paid center in NFL history. The Raiders made those agreements with the understanding that Crosby’s contract would not be on the books. Spytek, however, said that even after they found out Crosby’s figure would be on their payroll again, there was no consideration to reverse any of the agreements with free agents.
“We never would operate like that,” Spytek said. “We targeted the guys we wanted to. We gave them what we felt were good deals and we added what we thought are really good football players, so we were in a place to keep them all. I don’t know what we would have done if it would have been different, but we wouldn’t have walked out on any of those deals, either.”
Adding a veteran (starting?) quarterback
Going into the month of the draft, Aidan O’Connell is the only quarterback on the Raiders’ roster. O’Connell was drafted by the Raiders in the fourth round of the 2023 NFL Draft and started 10 games as a rookie, followed by seven games in 2024. After going 7-10, O’Connell was relegated to third-string duties last season behind Geno Smith and Gardner Minshew.
“Aidan’s played a lot of good football in this league,” Spytek said. “He’s started, he’s thrown for 300 yards in games, he’s a great teammate, he works his tail off, he’s smart.”
The obvious answer at the position for the Raiders will come through the draft, where they’re expected to select Indiana University quarterback Fernando Mendoza with the No. 1 overall pick. However, that would still leave the depth chart with a rookie and fourth-year backup, which raises plenty of questions.
“At a premium position, I think it’s a fair question to ask,” Spytek said. “We’re considering a bunch of different things right now. I think we’ll have some answers here in the coming weeks.”
The Raiders still have options on the open market for veteran quarterbacks who can be a valuable mentor to Mendoza while also sliding in as a stopgap starter. Russell Wilson is coming off a one-year stint with the New York Giants, where he served as the starter to begin the season before rookie Jaxson Dart took over. Kirk Cousins was the starter for the Atlanta Falcons in 2024 after Atlanta drafted Michael Penix Jr. in the first round. Penix took over as the team’s starter in 2025, before an injury thrust Cousins back into the starting role.
“We’d love to have a guy like (Cousins), a veteran presence, in the room,” Kubiak said. “We’re looking at all options.”
Whoever the Raiders do end up adding from the veteran market, Kubiak made it clear that the onus to mentor Mendoza still falls mostly on the young quarterback himself, as well as the coaches.
“You have that conversation, you let them know what they’re getting into,” Kubiak said. “Hopefully they know what they’re getting into. But I don’t believe — I’m not going to ask a veteran to be a teacher. That’s our job. Our job’s to coach. You just want that guy to lead — lead with his play, lead by example. That’s a lot to ask from a guy. They have enough to worry about to get the ball off, or else they get sacked. You just want them to play their best football and hopefully the young guy will learn through osmosis.”
Former Atlanta Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins (18) is currently one of the top free agents still available. (Dale Zanine / Imagn Images)
Fernando Mendoza, Day 1 starter?
Spytek has maintained his stance throughout the offseason that drafting Mendoza with the No. 1 pick shouldn’t necessarily result in him being the team’s starter in Week 1 this season.
Kubiak shared the sentiment on Tuesday.
“I think, ideally, you don’t want him to start from Day 1,” Kubiak said. “You’d love him to be able to learn behind somebody. That’s in a perfect world. It doesn’t always work out that way. Sometimes they have to play from Day 1. It’s our job, as a coach, to get him ready to go. I think it does help a player, though, if they can sit behind a mature adult and watch how they run the show.”
Spytek further expanded on his view regarding the development of a young franchise quarterback. Spytek, asked about the quarterback position specifically, but expanding on all positions, explained that it’s not so much that a young player shouldn’t immediately be thrust into action, but more so that he shouldn’t be depended on.
“I really want to get to a place where, the young guys, you don’t have to count on, like we had to last year, in a sense,” Spytek said. “No matter the position — whether it’s quarterback, long-snapper or kicker — when they’re ready, that’s when you play them. When they’ve earned it, that’s when you play them.
“I think that’ll be one of the themes of our program going forward. We’ve got a chance right now, with the roster the way it is, we’ve got 10 draft picks, I would love for some of those guys to play, and play really well. But I don’t want them to feel the burden that they have to. We can teach them, they can work hard, they can learn what’s required of them in this system and being a professional, and then play them.”
Of the top three quarterbacks selected in last year’s draft, only No. 1 overall pick Cam Ward was a Day 1 starter. Wilson started ahead of Dart for the Giants, while Spencer Rattler started in New Orleans before second-round pick Tyler Shough took over. All three 2025 draft picks are expected to be the starters in Week 1 of the 2026 season.