Maxx Crosby got his wish on Friday night in leaving the Las Vegas Raiders and it seems that in some ways, Tom Brady got his too.
The Raiders traded away their star man to the Baltimore Ravens for two first round picks, with Crosby finally getting his move having grown impatient at another losing season in Sin City.
Brady, a minority owner at the Raiders, is overseeing the team’s second offseason rebuild in as many years. And it appears that once he accepted that the defensive end Crosby was leaving, he was determined not to trade him to the New England Patriots, led by his former teammate Mike Vrabel.
According to ESPN, an insider involved in Crosby’s move to the Ravens said: ‘No way Tom was sending Maxx to Vrabel.’
Brady, 48, seems determined to distance himself from the team where he won six of his seven Super Bowls as a player.
Before February’s showpiece event, where the Patriots were taking on the Seattle Seahawks, Brady said he didn’t ‘have a dog in the fight on this one’ and just wanted the best team to win. It sparked outrage from Patriots players and fans alike.
The Las Vegas Raiders traded Maxx Crosby to the Baltimore Ravens on Friday night
It sounds like Raiders minority owner Brady didn’t want Crosby going to the Patriots
Brady endured a tense split with the team when he left in 2020 but most of the strain was on his relationship with head coach Bill Belichick rather than the Patriots organization.
The team unveiled a statue of Brady outside their stadium in August 2025, with the legendary quarterback seemingly humbled by the gesture.
‘This is quite overwhelming to me,’ he said at the time. ‘I feel extremely honored, deeply grateful and, if I’m being honest, kind of old.’
The 48-year-old seemed to put the Crosby loss behind him on Saturday night. He was pictured at UFC 326 in Vegas and also attended an event with LeBron James and Michael Rubin.
But Brady now has work to do in Vegas. The team has the 14th pick now, as well as the first, in the first round of next month’s NFL Draft and after one failed rebuild, they cannot afford to misfire this time around.
Many expect the Raiders to take Fernando Mendoza with the first pick and make him the team’s quarterback of the future. But the Raiders are also widely anticiapted to sign a veteran quarterback this offseason, too, and start the 2026 campaign with him while they get Mendoza up to speed.
As for Crosby, it appears that the Dallas Cowboys were the leading contender alongside the Ravens to trade for him but didn’t want to part ways with two first-round picks.
The Chicago Bears were also interested by ESPN says when it came down to it, Ben Johnson’s team were not major players.
His eventual move to the Ravens underlines their credentials as Super Bowl contenders in 2026 in what is a new era for the organization.
After 18 seasons, John Harbaugh departed as head coach when they failed to make the playoffs. Jesse Minter took over, leaving his role as defensive coordinator of the Los Angeles Chargers for his first job as a head coach in the NFL.
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