Las Vegas Raiders edge rusher Maxx Crosby has played under four different head coaches since joining the team in 2019. While he and many teammates didn’t enjoy playing for Josh McDaniels, it was an experience under Jon Gruden that might’ve nearly cost Crosby a spot on the roster.
Crosby, a three-time Pro Bowl selection, joined Las Vegas in 2019 as a fourth-round pick. Selected 106th overall, the 6-foot-5 defensive end out of Eastern Michigan had an uphill battle entering the NFL as he worked his way up the Raiders depth chart.
- Maxx Crosby stats 2023: 31 quarterback hits, 23 tackles for loss, 14.5 sacks
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While Crosby didn’t seem to mind his experience under Gruden, one moment in his first training camp still sticks with him years later. One of the biggest reasons for that is because Gruden threatened to end the rookie’s career before it really even got started in 2019.
During an appearance on Pardon My Take before the Super Bowl, All-Pro edge rusher Maxx Crosby revealed that Gruden threatened to cut him for batting down passes in practice.
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“He would get irritated. He literally threatened to cut me on the middle of the field. My first training camp, he’s an offensive coach…He would get so mad about batting balls. We’d be in practice doing team and he would refuse to let us bat the ball. But I would tell him, ‘Why the (expletive) are we practicing and not batting balls but in a game, they’re going to be doing the same (expletive), so what’s the point?’…I’m not even thinking, I’m just trying to make plays, I’m a third-string, I’m just trying to do everything. Second week of training camp, I swat a ball down and I’m hyped celebrating, he’s looking at me all irritated. Happens again, boom, swat a ball down and it happens at the end of practice, I swat it for the third time. He’s like ‘Stop swatting the (expletive) ball down, I’ll (expletive cut you if you do it one more time.”
Las Vegas Raiders EDGE Maxx Crosby on Jon Gruden blowing up at him for batting passes down in practice
As Crosby states, Gruden is an offensive-minded head coach who prioritizes success and repetitions for that side of the ball. In training camp, that meant that every pass the Raiders’ defense deflected was a missed opportunity for quarterback Derek Carr and the offense to build early chemistry.
While it might seem unlikely that Gruden would’ve cut Crosby for simply deflecting passes in practice, he did have that authority during his Raiders’ tenure. Gruden had the most influence of anyone outside of owner Mark Davis and that included control over the 53-man roster.
Fortunately for the Raiders’ defense, Crosby was not cut by Gruden and he immediately became one of the best players on the field. He finished second in Defensive Rookie of the Year voting, recording 10 sacks and 4 forced fumbles in 16 games. Now, Crosby has a defensive-minded coach who encourages his players to make big plays in practice.
