Can the Raiders and Eagles Fix These Relationships?

We'll do one more, OK?

And I think because you and I both agreed with this when we talked, uh, uh, before the show, and that's the AJ Brown trade because we, we, we touched on it, uh, in the last episode when we were cleaning up the remnants of free agency.

But my thought here is that.

Like, is this the kind of thing where it could drag on into the offseason?

Well, here, let's do this.

Let's lump AJ Brown and Max Crosby together, OK.

For different reasons, um, Max has now gone on the offensive.

We've seen him.

We've heard him on his podcast saying, you know, they didn't even talk to me when I was there.

The whole thing was weird, kind of stoking the fire that maybe the Ravens had cold feet.

They pulled out, and then they had, there was the reporting that Max and Trey Hendrickson were in the facility at the same time, right, when they were doing all this.

So , which I think, no, no, no, I think that's impossible though, isn't it?

It would have been because I think, yeah, it was a Monday.

He would, Trey Henderson wouldn't have been allowed to be there.

OK, so that's, but, but he, they, I think they could have done a Zoom with him, right?

Isn't that what the rule was?

Or maybe they were, maybe they were talking to him virtually.

They could have done a Zoom with him, but I don't think they could have had him there in person anyway.

OK, so we have the optical issues there.

Uh, I, I think that I don't think the Raiders are done, and I don't think the Ravens are done going on offense with this story.

I think that there's still something that's gonna come up here.

Um, it's interesting that Nobody else is making a push for Max Crosby right now.

Like, does that sit in the Ravens corner as like a, hey, we were maybe right about this.

So, but I think that's like a chicken or egg thing, don't you?

because it's like, uh, and I think we talked about this, but a guy.

I think this, I, I think this like maybe not so subtly kills Crosby's trade value because if you're another coach or GM, It becomes, after the Ravens failed him, it becomes really difficult to trade for him because now, you're looking at it and saying, OK, like, I gotta give a first-round pickup plus something else to go and even get the Raiders to think about moving him.

And if I do that and he, his knee blows up in the next two years, how am I gonna explain that to my owner after it's out there that the Ravens failed him.

Now the Ravens look like they're right and I'm fired, you know.

So like I think from that standpoint what the Ravens did really nuked the Raiders' ability to get fair value for him, you know.

And so like I think.

I, I, I think Crosby is of a mind right now, and I think he's being genuine when he says he's back in.

And the reason why is this all started with fractured trust with the Guerrero thing and the whole idea that they were tanking at the end of the year to get the first overall pick.

I think the handling of this by Clint Kubiak and John Spytek, as it was going on in the moment, the fact that they had his back.

was the, was, was, I think, coming from a really genuine place, but has become the bridge back for them, because there, I think they were starting to rebuild the trust with the star player.

And so now I think they can go forward together.

That said, I mean, look, if he has like 8 sacks.

7 games into the season and the Raiders are 0 and 7.

What do you think we're all gonna be talking about?

Yeah, and that's, that's what I think is the more likely scenario.

Like, if he's gonna be traded, I think it's gonna have to come after Max Crosby gets back on the field and plays really well, so people will forget about everything that just happened and so it becomes a little bit easier.

From, you know, just as far as managing your owners, managing your fan base, it becomes easier to go out and trade for them again.

Um, and that I think isn't a bad place for the Raiders to be either, by the way.

Like I look at where the Raiders are here and it's like, OK, Max is gonna help us build a culture, um, and we're gonna go forward as if he's gonna be part of our team going forward.

But if we're really bad in October, or, or early November, and he's playing great, We can have that conversation then, you know, and so I think that's, that's probably the, the smartest way to move forward if you're, if you're the Raiders.

And I think that's why it's gonna be something that we're gonna continue to talk about unless the Raiders surprise everybody and Fernando Mendoza is a star right away and they're 6 and 3 or whatever it is at the trade deadline.

Um, I do think this is probably gonna be a topic of conversation even when we get to the fall.

I, I agree with that.

I think that's gonna linger longer.

Uh, I nailed that, by the way, tough pronunciation, uh, double L's, alliteration.

Um.

What's interesting about Brown to me is that I think that that has the potential to linger through the draft, because at this point, if you're Howie Roseman, And you're used to maxing value, what's the one thing left that you can probably do with AJ Brown is you can save him and trade him much in the way that you got him in the first place.

You can linger until you see what teams are going to do at the wide receiver position towards the tail end of the first round of the draft.

You can kind of hold AJ Brown out there as an option.

And then what's really cool about it is, what do you get in return instead of a 2026 first-round pick or second-round pick for AJ Brown, Albert, you get a 2027 first-round pick or second-round pick or whatever AJ Brown, I'm not saying AJ Brown's gonna get a first-round pick, but You're getting better capital and you're maximizing that last deadline moment.

And so, my guess is that maybe this AJ Brown stuff dies down now as the rest of the league dies down, and then all these teams pivot toward, well, we got meetings, we got our top 30 visits except for the Jaguars who are just not going to take them for some reason.

And then you have all these things that are going on, all these machinations of the draft, and then, hey, now we're going to jump back in.

Now, we're going to see what's going on with AJ Brown right before the draft, and maybe that's the, Whatever the spice that we're looking for in this draft, I don't know.

Yeah, I don't think Howie Roseman has to do anything, Connor .

I mean, I like, I, I, I think.

I haven't seen him lose many trades, and he doesn't lose trades in the front end, you know, like it's very rare that you'll look at a trade and say, oh, what were, what were the Eagles thinking, you know, very rare.

Um, generally the way we'll look at the trades that he makes, I think this is to his credit, you could explain to your kid, you know what I mean, like, oh yeah, here's what he was thinking, and it's like, oh, that makes sense, you know, and so I don't see them.

I don't see them giving AJ Brown away.

I think the problem has been the gap in the way that the league perceives his value versus the way that the way that the Eagles value him.

The Eagles value him at a Quentin Williams, um, you know, Devonte Adams type of level.

Both those guys went for a 1 and a 2.

To be fair, Quentin Williams is in the same draft class as, as AJ Brown and was traded months ago.

And Devonte Adams was actually older than, than, um, than, than AJ Brown is now when he was traded from the Packers to the Raiders.

So, you know, I, I understand that piece of it.

The other piece of it from other teams' perspectives is this is an older player.

The comp I heard was, you know, hey, he's like Steph Diggs going from Buffalo.

To Houston, which was for a 2nd round pick and a pick swap , which I think the pick swap even favored Houston, you know, so, uh, it's like, how do you, how do you bridge that gap, you know, maybe you have conditions on it, and if you have conditions on it, then it has to be a future pick.

It can't be this year's pick, you know, um, there are things you can creatively do.

Here's my question with him.

Can they go back and have him on the team this year?

I think so.

I mean, well, I listen, I, I, I, I've said, and this is something that to me is like the operative thing here because like we're talk, I think too often we talk about these guys like they aren't people, you know what I mean?

Too often we talk about these guys as if like they're poker chips, and they aren't, you know, and I think in a case like this, like you do have to like consider if you're the Eagles.

The water that's gone under the bridge now.

And like, functionally, what does this look like if you're bringing AJ Brown back onto your roster?

I, I reserve the right to change my mind on this because I think in the past I've said that.

Brown is sensitive to the point where I think if a team decides that it's over and makes it clear that it's over, that maybe it's hard for him to come back.

That said, I do wonder if Brown is like any of us, where you get to the point where you're leaving something that was quietly probably pretty good for you, and staring out into the future of the unknown, new places.

Uh, new coaches, new uncertainty, even if it's the Patriots, right?

Drake May is an uncertainty.

Um, you know, the other receivers in the room are an uncertainty to some degree, um, the staff, the owner, you know, all that stuff, right?

I mean, so you're projecting, I mean, Drake's a great quarterback.

I think it's gonna get better, but like I, I, I see you're saying the uncertainty of it all.

Like what's it gonna look like for me and so does that change because AJ's part of this, right?

It's not like the Eagles have been doing him wrong consistently.

I mean, they've paid him well.

He's been like 100 target, 1000 yard wide receiver most years.

It's like that's a pretty good life for an NFL wide receiver.

And so, you know, maybe you realize that once you're dangled on the market for a couple of weeks and then all of a sudden you're like, oh yeah, this actually is better.