Bear Digest

NFL Insider Provides Insight on Potential Bears Trade for Maxx Crosby

The price being demanded for the Raiders' defensive end remains high, and the list of teams interested is challenging if they want to get a deal done.
Gene Chamberlain|
Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby and wife Rachel Washburn attend an NBA game between the Golden State Warriors and the LA Clippers.
Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby and wife Rachel Washburn attend an NBA game between the Golden State Warriors and the LA Clippers. | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

Apparently it's going to cost the Bears if they want Maxx Crosby, and there's no uncertainty to this.

The uncertainty is whether they, or anyone else, would pay the Raiders' asking price.

Numerous NFL insiders have linked the Bears to trade interest in the Las Vegas defensive end but all have said nothing has changed in terms of the Raiders' demands in such a deal. Those demands were two first-round picks and a player and still are.

At the combine, Raiders GM John Spytek had said he wasn't trading Crosby, and then explained why.

"Maxx is an elite player, and I've been very upfront from the start when I got  here that we're in the business of having really good players on the team, and we need a lot more of them," he said. "And it's hard to build a great team without elite players."

This doesn't keep the trade buzz from continuing on social media, which is entirely worthless.

What aren't worthless are the thoughts of those insiders who are in contact with some of the  league's agents, and in this case ESPN's Adam Schefter. In an appearance on ESPN AM-1000's Waddle & Silvy, he told Tom Waddle and Marc Silverman he doesn't think the Bears will wind up with Crosby.

He did acknowledge they would be an interested team but that the price is too high at this point.

"It's certainly within the realm of possibility but there are things that have to happen before that trade happens," Schefter said. "The Raiders, they don't want to trade him. Their hope would be to hold onto him. And so we'll see what happens here and how it plays out."

The Rams and Cowboys have been among teams interested and it would be easier to see them getting him because of the draft picks and cap space they have. As for the Bears?

"I think I'd probably be surprised if he ended up in Chicago, but we'll see what  happens," Schefter told the former Bears receiver and his sidekick.

Now, this discussion occurred after the DJ Moore trade but Schefter didn't seem to think that deal mattered in this case even if it did free up Bears cap space.

"I don't think these trades affect Maxx Crosby," Schefter said. "Like, the Raiders are going to get an offer that they feel they can't turn down or they're not. And what they get in an offer isn't reflective off of what the Bears got for DJ Moore or the Chiefs for Trent McDuffie or the Lions for David Montgomery.

"Maxx Crosby is in his own category. The Raiders feel like they  don't want to trade him and I think there's going to have to be a team that really steps up to get him off their hands, if that's even going to happen here in the next week or so."

Schefter also had comments about the Bears and the possibility they would be interested in signing one of the top free agent centers and also free agent defensive end Trey Hendrickson. He even said he had spoken with Hendrickson himself recently.

The Bears and Crosby never has made sense, and it goes beyond the salary cap issues that may have been adequately addressed now with the DJ Moore trade and the expected departure of linebacker Tremaine Edmunds.

A 29-year-old edge at around $30 million a  year, with 25% of their cap space then devoted to Montez Sweat, Dayo Odeyingbo and then Crosby would be rather ridiculous when they've been trying to craft a young team around Caleb Williams as his second contract approaches.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.

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