Training camp heat has a way of boiling over even for the most disciplined veterans, and Friday’s Las Vegas Raiders practice proved it. A fiery, physical exchange broke out between star pass rusher Maxx Crosby and new starting quarterback Kirk Cousins, two players the franchise is counting on to lead very different sides of the ball this season. It did not take long for the two to cool off, but not before it turned into the kind of moment that had the entire building talking.

The Athletic’s Sam Warren laid out exactly how it started.

“Things got feisty at end of Raiders camp. Maxx Crosby tipped pass from Kirk Cousins in backfield, and Kirk got in his face afterwards,” Warren reported. “Grabbed his collar and shouting match ensued. Seemed to light a fire under Kirk, who had some picks today. Was surgical in 2 min situation after.”

The full sequence was more physical than a single tipped pass. During the team period, Crosby hit Cousins’ arm not once but twice, and it was the second hit that set the 15-year veteran off. Cousins charged Crosby, a defensive end three inches taller and 42 pounds heavier than him, got in his face, and grabbed his jersey by the collar before a shouting match broke out between them. Coaches stepped in before it went any further.

That kind of response was a real shift for Cousins in the moment. He’d struggled earlier in the session, throwing multiple interceptions, before the confrontation seemed to snap him into form. He came back and was surgical during a two-minute drill immediately after.

Head coach Klint Kubiak wasn’t concerned when he addressed it afterward.

“That’s training camp,” Kubiak said. “Those are two leaders of our team going at it. So that is part of camp. Obviously, you fight in a game, you throw a punch, you’re out of the game. So we’ve got to be smart, treat it like a game.”

Tight end Michael Mayer went further, framing the whole exchange as a good sign for a team that’s rebuilding its identity.

“That’s our starting quarterback right now, and you want him to defend your team,” Mayer said. “You want him to have some edge to him, which he does. He’s always had that, since the first day I met him when he came in here. I don’t want him getting thrown out. I don’t want him getting a flag or anything like that. But you’ve got to be able to defend yourself. It’s energy, man. We don’t want to be throwing punches, but I think on any padded day of camp there’s going to be some tussles.”

All of this matters given how new this pairing actually is. Cousins signed with the Raiders this offseason after two seasons in Atlanta, and Crosby is back in Las Vegas after a brief stint in Baltimore following a trade earlier this year. Neither has had much time to build chemistry with the other, and Friday’s flare-up read, at least to the locker room, as two new centerpieces already establishing how seriously they take winning.

Las Vegas wasn’t the only camp with tempers running hot this week either.

Training camp scuffles have broken out across the league

At Dallas Cowboys camp, edge rusher Donovan Ezeiruaku was ejected from Tuesday’s practice after throwing a punch at right tackle Terence Steele, the only player involved to throw a blow, which is why head coach Brian Schottenheimer had him pulled from the field immediately. A separate scuffle involving Anthony Smith and Caelan Carson broke out the following day.

Buffalo’s camp saw something bigger. After rookie linebacker Kaleb Elarms-Orr hit tight end Dalton Kincaid with a late, out-of-bounds hit, the entire Bills offense responded. Offensive lineman Alec Anderson got to the pile first, later admitting he punched Elarms-Orr in the face several times and choked him out before coaches pulled everyone apart. A second, smaller skirmish broke out separately after a hard hit on receiver T.J. Parker.

Training camp fights are an August staple across the league, but the Cousins-Crosby moment stood out for what it signaled rather than how far it went, two new leaders drawing an early line for how their teammates should compete. The Raiders reconvene for practice this week as camp continues, with Cousins and Mendoza’s ongoing quarterback competition and the health of both Crosby and Cousins heading into the regular season the next real things worth watching out of Las Vegas.