'Extremely conservative' NFL doctors at root of Maxx Crosby trade reversal

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'Extremely conservative' NFL doctors at root of Maxx Crosby trade reversal

Chris Bumbaca, USA TODAY · USA TODAY Sports

Fri, Mar 13, 2026 ·

6 min read

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Miami Dolphins equipment staffers quickly slapped together a Drew Brees jersey for the introductory news conference that never was − even though former Dolphins general manager Randy Mueller claimed to have had a five-year, $50 million contract ready for Brees to sign in 2006.

Instead, Brees will go into the Hall of Fame this summer, mostly thanks to his heroics as a member of the New Orleans Saints , for the same reason Maxx Crosby went from the Las Vegas Raiders to the Baltimore Ravens back to the Raiders in four-day span:

A team's medical staff intervening and nixing the deal.

The shoulder that concerned Miami's doctors healed just fine for Brees, and the Saints took the risk while Dolphins management bet on Daunte Culpepper's busted knee over Brees' bum arm.

According to former Raiders CEO Amy Trask, team doctors have every reason to be "extremely conservative" in their prognosis when players are acquired.

"Because you don't want to be the team doctor that sticks their neck out … and then be wrong," Trask told USA TODAY Sports.

Crosby is recovering from a partial meniscus tear that was surgically repaired in January. The injury prompted the Raiders to ask Crosby to sit out the final two games of the season. Crosby did not appreciate that and left the team in a huff, according to FOX Sports.

With Crosby's final days in the silver and black seemingly cemented and the rebuild in the desert underway, the Ravens traded for Crosby and sent first-round picks for 2026 and 2027 to Las Vegas . The shock came when the Raiders revealed Tuesday night, via a statement, that the Ravens had "backed out" of the deal.

"When you trade for a player that had a meniscus repair, it's not going to look great, at this stage," former New York Jets general manager Mike Tannenbaum said. "How much different was it from what they expected?"

Tannenbaum said it's more common for medical issues to be discovered during pre-draft exams. Another team could examine Crosby's medicals and take less – or even no – issue with them.

The letter of the law, Tannenbaum noted, is that nothing is official until 4 p.m. on the day the new league year begins.

"Until then, all of this is just hypotheticals," said Tannenbaum, now an analyst at ESPN.

The Ravens didn't necessarily do anything nefarious.

"I think they just see it differently," Tannenbaum said.

Shortly after news of the reversion broke, NFL Network's Tom Pelissero anonymously quoted one general manager who said "this is very much (expletive) on Baltimore's part."

Tannenbaum doesn't necessarily buy the narrative that any reputations have been wounded.

"In the NFL, everything is transactional," he said. "And if the best opportunities are to work with the Ravens, they're going to work with the Ravens. I don't put a lot of stock into that."

Opinions about the Ravens' level of mendacity will vary from front office to front office. But if the Ravens have a player another team wants, Trask said, this won't affect another team's willingness to engage them.

"Situational ethics, perhaps," said Trask, who now is an analyst at CBS Sports.

Trask doesn't believe it's a case of buyer's remorse. But the doctors' findings surely affected Crosby's worth, which the Ravens had initially deemed two first-round picks.

In a news conference Wednesday, DeCosta said he understood the skepticism.

"Every decision we make is based on this idea, 'Is this the best thing for the Ravens?'" DeCosta told reporters. "It's very, very challenging. Again, I understand how people might – maybe from afar – would feel that way, but nobody is more upset about this than me. I am gutted by it, actually, a big regret for me."

But he wouldn't necessarily undo anything – other than the trade itself.

"It was a really, really, really tough call," he said. "There were moments yesterday when, honestly, I was probably speechless, just sitting in my chair in my office and just thinking about what the next step would be and trying to get as much information as possible. In a situation like this, you try to get as much information as you can from as many different sources as you can, and it just didn't work out."

Trask's initial reaction to the reversal was that Crosby will relish the chance to show the Ravens they were wrong to back out of the deal.

"He has always played with passion and purpose," Trask said. "Now I think he's going to be more ferocious and fierce."

Tannenbaum thinks the Raiders will still try to trade Crosby and said a future Crosby move could contain conditions based on Crosby's availability (games started or percentage of snaps played, for example) in 2026.

A second-round pick could turn into a first depending on whether he reaches a certain threshold, Tannenbaum said. Doing so could help the Raiders move Crosby if that remained a priority.

"I'm sure they'll find a suitor," he said. "I'd be surprised if they didn't."

The Ravens, meanwhile, "pivoted quite well, quickly," with edge rusher Trey Hendrickson . DeCosta described the Ravens' trade for Crosby and signing of Hendrickson as "mutually exclusive." The interest in Hendrickson began once it became clear they lost center Tyler Linderbaum (who signed a three-year, $81 million deal with the Raiders, ironically), DeCosta indicated.

Issues popping up during a physical is not a new phenomenon. Three years ago, Jimmy Garropolo's introductory news conference with the Raiders was delayed by a day because of a hangup regarding the language in his contract as it related to a preexisting foot injury for which he underwent surgery shortly thereafter. It also happens in other sports. In the NBA, the Los Angeles Lakers' trade for Mark Williams was reversed because of his physical. MLB shortstop Carlos Correa had two long-term deals nixed over concerns regarding an injury he suffered nearly a decade prior before agreeing to a six-year deal with the Minnesota Twins in 2023.

But in the NFL, not every instance involves a player such as Brees or Crosby. The Athletic noted that a deal with wide receiver Ryan Grant fell through in 2018 because of medical concerns, and the same thing happened with defensive lineman Michael Brockers in 2020.

This story took on a magnitude of a different level, Trask said, because of the player involved and the compensation.

"In other words, a dominant, dominant defensive lineman and two first-round picks," Trask said. "I think that's why this story has gotten more attention than other situations like this in the past."