A blockbuster trade for Las Vegas Raiders star Maxx Crosby would come at a steep price, but it could also unlock the San Francisco 49ers’ full championship potential.
San Francisco’s offseason showed admirable ambition. They signed veterans Mike Evans and Christian Kirk, drafted De’Zhaun Stribling, and added Osa Odighizuwa and Dre Greenlaw to a defense that surrendered 21.8 points per game; these are the moves of a franchise serious about competing.
They’re just not the moves of a franchise serious about winning a championship.
The NFC West has changed…
The Seattle Seahawks hold a Lombardi Trophy. The Los Angeles Rams added Myles Garrett and Trent McDuffie in the same offseason, which is either brilliant roster building or the rest of the conference is asleep at the wheel. San Francisco’s championship window, which was once wide open, is now as narrow as Brock Purdy’s ability to stay healthy.
Which brings us to the uncomfortable math.
The 49ers are sitting on $72 million in cap space. They have Nick Bosa, one of the premier pass rushers in football. And the Raiders, rebuilding around quarterback Fernando Mendoza and first-year coach Klint Kubiak, have a 28-year-old edge rusher who publicly had a trade to Baltimore fall apart because the Baltimore Ravens got cold feet over his knee. That rusher is now motivated, available and professionally insulted.
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Crosby paired with Bosa isn’t just an addition; they’d be looking at multiplication.
The Raiders will deal him again. The logic that drove the Baltimore framework hasn’t changed. Las Vegas is building long-term. Crosby’s peak years and a youth movement don’t overlap. The reported price tag of a 2027 first-round pick, a 2028 second-round pick and Mykel Williams is steep, but the alternative is watching the Rams and Seahawks lap you while you wonder whether the safety room was really the problem.
San Francisco knows how excellent this core is. So does everyone watching. The question isn’t whether they can afford Crosby. It’s whether they can afford to pass.
*Top Photo: AP Photo/Zach Bolinger