When the Las Vegas Raiders hired Rob Marinelli as their defensive line coach ahead of the 2020 season, Maxx Crosby wasted no time telling him that he wanted to become the best in the league and asked to be coached accordingly. Marinelli had arrived in Las Vegas after demanding the highest standards from stars like Warren Sapp and Julius Peppers. Crosby, however, wasn’t prepared for that level of coaching, as no matter what he did to impress Marinelli, it never seemed enough.

It wasn’t until more than a year later that Crosby finally confronted his coach and learned why he had been treated that way.

“We had come to a Jesus moment,” Crosby said about his relationship with Coach Marinelli. “It was like a year and a half in, and I’m in front of the line, I’m trying to do everything perfect. I’m going 100 miles an hour, and nothing was good enough for him. And it finally took me. I go up to the office one day, and I’m like, ‘Coach, am I out of my mind, or are you personally trying to like f—ing piss me off on purpose because I’m trying to do everything right?’ And he sat there and laughed. He literally started laughing in my face…I’m like, ‘Coach, am I not doing something right? Do you not like me? What’s going on?”

Crosby was just entering his second NFL season when Marinelli became his defensive line coach. He had finished his rookie season with 47 combined tackles and 10 sacks before the Raiders moved to Vegas. In his second year, under Marinelli’s guidance, Crosby recorded 39 combined tackles and 7 sacks. But he was nowhere close to where he wanted to be.

Heading into the 2021 OTAs, Crosby was in the best shape of his career and eager to show his coach how much he had improved athletically. But Marinelli still wasn’t impressed.

“He was just sitting there, smiling at me, and he’s like, ‘Maxx, you told me when I got here that you wanted to be the best. You don’t want to just be good. You don’t want to be great. You want to be the best. So I’m going to coach you like that every single day, no matter you like it or not,” Crosby added.

It was then in the 2021 season that Crosby leaped, recording 56 combined tackles and 8 sacks, earning his first Pro Bowl and second-team All-Pro nod. While Marinelli announced his retirement from coaching following the 2021 season, Crosby has since earned five consecutive Pro Bowl selections from 2021 to 2025 and has become one of the league’s leading defensive ends.

And that was because Marinelli coached him the way he wanted to be coached from the beginning. Fast forward to now, Crosby has been amid the trade rumors. While the Raiders had earlier traded him to the Baltimore Ravens, he is now expected to play the 2026 season in Vegas after the Ravens backed out of the trade.