Maxx Crosby was fully prepared to put his body in jeopardy when he walked into the team facility on Friday. Maintaining a spotless attendance this season despite battling a knee injury since Week 12, the defensive end expected he’d suit up for the last two games of the regular season as well. Pete Carroll, though, didn’t hesitate to shut him down quickly. The result? Crosby stomping out of the building, raising concerns about his future with the team. But the head coach begged to differ.

“He’s been fighting the injury so hard for nine weeks, whenever the Kansas City Chiefs game was,” Carroll told reporters, detailing how the conversation went with Crosby. “Each week he has done everything you can possibly imagine a guy can do to play. But after an evaluation we did, it just looks too bad.

“He didn’t want to take the news like that, and I didn’t want to take the news like that. If we let him, he would have been out there, and he would not have hesitated, but he knows that he’s banged up. So he’s talking about, ‘I’d like to get out of here.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, get out of here.’ So, he took off. I agree with him 1,000% on how he responded, and I would have responded the same way. We thought our way through it and hopefully came to the right conclusion for his long-term betterment.”

Well, looks like things are still hunky dory between Crosby and the team. However, it doesn’t take away from the fact that the veteran player has team interests nowhere on his mind.

Take, for instance, the Raiders’ potential to clinch the No. 1 pick in the 2026 NFL Draft. While that’s huge for a team currently struggling with a 2-13 record, Crosby doesn’t care. Literally.

“I don’t give a s—t about the pick, to be honest,” the player said this week. “That’s not my job. My job is to be the best defensive end in the world. I’ve learned my lesson in the past. You can’t control everything. That’s not my job description. My job is to be the best in the world at what I do. And that’s wrecking the game.”

So far, Crosby has kept that promise.

Case in point, the Raiders’ game against the Philadelphia Eagles. In the Week 15 matchup, the 28-year-old had four total tackles, one tackle for loss, one quarterback hit, and a sack. The last got his total for the season to 10, making it his fourth consecutive season with at least 10 sacks. He tied Haason Reddick (4) and Trey Hendrickson (4) for the fifth most seasons of 10.0+ sacks since 2019. The player also recorded a career-high 26 tackles for loss this season, passing legendary Los Angeles Rams defender Aaron Donald for the sixth spot since 2000.

Overall, the player has tallied 10 sacks in 15 games this season, along with an interception and two forced fumbles. Through his tenure in Las Vegas, Crosby has been a change-making cornerstone. Let’s look at some of the work he has done with the team:

• He’s first in franchise history with 133 recorded tackles for loss (10th in active NFL players), third with 69.5 sacks, and tied for seventh with 11 forced fumbles.
• His 39 percent run stop win rate is first among edge rushers, per ESPN Analytics.
• Despite ending the season at least two games early, he has forced two fumbles, 10 sacks, and 118 total tackles with 28 tackles for loss.

All this, despite the injury, since durability has underscored his tenure in Las Vegas.

To put it into numbers, Crosby played in every single game for the first five seasons with the team. The only five games he missed were in 2024, owing to a lingering ankle injury that required surgery.

When he signed a multi-year extension this offseason, he ranked first in tackles for loss (105), fourth in tackles (364), tied for fourth in sacks (59.5), fourth in quarterback hits (144), and fifth in quarterback pressures (346) among defensive linemen in the NFL since 2019. And that’s all because he believes in just one thing.

“I truly just want to win,” he said in March while signing a massive 3-year, $106.5 million contract. “I don’t care about all the other stuff that comes with it. Obviously, it means a lot to me, being a part of the Silver and Black and the history. I feel like I’ve said it a million times, I feel like I was meant to be a Raider.”

However, zoom out a little, and this whole moment naturally leads to bigger questions about Crosby’s future with the Las Vegas Raiders and how available he’ll be once the offseason rolls around.

To some, the injuries may be the reason why history might repeat itself eventually.

In 2022, the Raiders sent quarterback Derek Carr home with two games remaining in the regular season. Two months later, he was gone for good. Carr had signed a three-year, $121.5 million extension with the Raiders the previous offseason.

But given how firmly Crosby has shut down past trade chatter, especially when those Dallas Cowboys rumors popped up, Raiders fans probably don’t need to panic. Moreover, when asked about the DE’s future, Carroll said he has no concern — “None”.