Raiders rumors: Ian Rapoport breaks down ‘complicated’ Maxx Crosby trade situation

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Raiders rumors: Ian Rapoport breaks down ‘complicated’ Maxx Crosby trade situation

Ben Strauss, ClutchPoints · ClutchPoints

Tue, Feb 17, 2026 ·

2 min read

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Raiders rumors: Ian Rapoport breaks down 'complicated' Maxx Crosby trade situation appeared first on ClutchPoints . Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here .

The Las Vegas Raiders will be an exciting team to watch this offseason. Las Vegas has plenty of salary cap space and the first overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft to help kickstart their rebuild. The Raiders have also stayed in the headlines because of persistent rumors about a possible Maxx Crosby trade.

NFL Network's Ian Rapoport broke down the trade situation surrounding Crosby during a recent interview on The Rich Eisen Show.

Eisen asked if there's any reason to bother Crosby with questions about the trade situation. Rapoport made it clear that there is smoke around a potential Crosby trade.

"Yeah, there is reason to bother, this is definitely not nothing. I just don't know what it is yet," Rapoport said on Tuesday. "The reason why is like… there will be plenty of times where you see smoke around a player. Then you get to like March 10th, 11th, 12th and then okay now we learn why this player gets traded. I don't know if that's going to be the case with Maxx Crosby ."

Rapoport called the situation "complicated" in part because of Crosby's lingering knee injury .

"This is as complicated a situation as I can remember," Rapoport added. "I'll go through the reasons why. One…[the way the season ended] had an effect on him. He wanted to play, it turns out he had a significant knee injury, but he wanted to play and was upset that he did not get to finish on the field with his teammates… Then he has surgery, and it's not a trim, it's a repair. It's… not as major of a repair as it could have been."

Crosby had surgery in January and is expected to need a few months before he fully recovers. As a result, he may not be medically cleared to be traded at the start of the new league year.

"I don't think he'd be cleared to be traded in March anyways, unless someone wanted to take a leap of faith," Rapoport concluded. "So you're probably looking at more the draft or around August for a possible trade."

Perhaps the Raiders will attempt to persuade Crosby that he should stay in Las Vegas.

Rapoport did note that one source said "the plot thickens" after Kubiak hired Rob Leonard as defensive coordinator .

Ultimately, Raiders fans must remain patient and take all of the Crosby trade rumors with a grain of salt.

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