Raiders Taking the Steps to Keep Crosby on the Field

Las Vegas Raiders Pro Bowl edge rusher Maxx Crosby has played every defensive snap in the team's last three games.

Las Vegas Raiders pass rusher Maxx Crosby is on a mission this year, and he just might be playing the best football of his career.

Much of that is due to Crosby's availability, as he is rarely off the field when the defense is out there.

The two-time Pro Bowler has played over 90 percent of the team's defensive snaps, including 100 percent of defensive plays over the Raiders' last three games.

This hasn't been by accident, as Raiders Coach Josh McDaniels and his staff have made it a point to limit Crosby during the week so that he is ready to go on game days.

"It is something we talk a lot about," McDaniels said when he addressed the media on Monday. "I would say there's an element of taking the whole week in totality and trying to figure out how do we manage the week so that we get the most bang for our buck in the game. And so, sometimes -- you've seen he's been limited, and again, he's dealing with some little things here and there, too. 

The sky is the limit for the career of the Las Vegas Raiders superstar Maxx Crosby / Darrell Craig Harris, Raiders Today

"But the reality is if you limit certain things during the course of the week so that you get 60-some snaps out of him on game day, then that's the give and the take. There might be times where we go ahead and try not to do that as much. I'd say when we have the ball as much as we did in the first half yesterday [Sunday], that certainly can alleviate some stress on somebody like that in terms of the snap count getting crazy early in the game. 

"I think we had 40-some snaps on offense and 20-some on defense in the first half, which is helpful. So, early in the season, that was kind of flipped around on us a little bit. So, everything goes into it, but if we needed to take him out, we would certainly do that. 

"The longer the drives go, the more you consider doing that stuff, but obviously, we'd like him out there as many snaps as he feels good about it."

Crosby has been on the injury report the last three weeks and was limited in all but one of those practices, the exception having been Week 4 when he did not participate in one of the three practices.

The Silver and Black will head on the road to take on the Chicago Bears on Sunday, Oct. 22, at 1:05 p.m. EDT/10:05 a.m. PDT.

Please tell us your thoughts when you like our Facebook Page WHEN YOU CLICK RIGHT HERE.