The Ringer NFL Show - Maxx Crosby Bombshell Dominates Day 2 of Free Agency

Episode Date: March 11, 2026

Sheil and The Ringer’s Diante Lee get together to share their instant reactions to the news of the Baltimore Ravens backing out of their blockbuster trade for DE Maxx Crosby. They then analyze and discuss an eventful second day of NFL free agency negotiations. (00:00) Maxx Crosby Bombshell Dominates Day 2 of Free Agency (01:03) Ravens back out of Maxx Crosby deal (19:56) Teams that could be interested in Maxx Crosby (31:37) Patriots sign WR Romeo Doubs (36:26) Eagles sign CB Riq Woolen (45:07) Jets acquire QB Geno Smith The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Host: Sheil Kapadia Guest: Diante Lee Producer: Chris Sutton Video Editor: Stefano Sanchez Production Supervision: Conor Nevins and Arjuna Ramgopowell Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Ringer NFL show. I'm your host, Shield Capadio. You know what we're talking about today. The biggest story in the NFL, the biggest story in the NFL offseason, that is the Baltimore Ravens backing out of the Max Crosby trade with the Raiders. We thought they were sending two first round picks to the Raiders. They say, no, Max Crosby failed is physical. We're backing out.

Ripple effects around the NFL with that story. We're going to get to every single angle of the Macs. Max Crosby story. And then we'll hit on some of the other signings in free agency. Romeo Dobbs, Rieck Woll and Gino Smith being traded to the Jets. We'll get to all of that as well. My guest today is the Ringers, Deontay Lee. Let's take a break. We come back with Deonti. All right, we are back here on the Ringer NFL show with my friend Deontalee. And Deontay, the juices got flowing around eight o'clock Eastern time. Tuesday night when all of a sudden, all across my timeline, the group chats everywhere. The Raiders send out a press release that says simply, the Baltimore

Ravens have backed out of our trade agreement for Max Crosby. We will have no further comment at this time. Minutes later, Diana Rossini of the Athletic report that Crosby failed his physical and the trade is off. So there are about 17 million different layers to this story. And I told you we were about to start and I said, don't say a word about the Crosby thing. I want to know exactly what you think. when we start the pot. So here's the big question. What happened? That is the big question. Is this on the up and up? Is this the Ravens had Crosby in? They had him in for a physical. They said, oh, there are some surprises here. He's not passing the physical. We have to back out as two first round picks. We can't go through with this. That is the Ravens story. And we can get into the details there,

but that is the Raven story of what happened. And then there's the other side of it that is making its way, whether it's, again, your group chats, league circles, GMs around the NFL, saying, I don't think so. I don't think this is on the up and up. I think the Ravens had second thoughts about this trade, whether it's the fact that Trey Hendrickson's still out there, whether it's the fact that they thought about it further and said, do we really want to give up two first round picks? Whatever the case, they had second thoughts. And they said none of this is official until Wednesday. and until it's called into the league Wednesday at 4 p.m. and everyone signs off, there is a little bit of wiggle room. And it might not be what all the teams do. And it might not happen often. But you know what?

We got to do what's best for us. And we don't want to make this trade anymore. So we're going to make up this physical thing. And we're backing out of it. And we're moving forward with our franchise. Deante, which is it? Is this, is this legit reasoning from the Ravens? Or are you calling BS on this? I think you kind of have to call BS on this. This is not, hey, a guy is fresh off of an all pro season. Everything looks great. He is on the clear upward trajectory.

And then maybe we found something that nobody knew about. Like he's got some back injury or something that nobody had picked up on or the team wasn't forthcoming about whatever the status. Like he had this quiet surgery before the start of the season that nobody knew about but the Raiders. And now we're finding out as we're trying to evaluate him on a physical. It was very clear. This was somebody who was coming off of meniscus surgery, right?

You made that trade with clear eyes on that alone, right? So my thought is, if you were willing to engage with Max, on a Max Crosby deal, you did so with the understanding that, hey, this is the guy who was recovering from a surgery. We're negotiating with that understanding, right? This is not a, oh, we wouldn't have thrown in that second first round pick if we had known about this knee issue. Oh, this was public information, right?

So I do think that you have to call a little bit of BS on what the reasoning is out there, right? Because we haven't heard anything official from Baltimore yet. We just know what's been reported. And I think that maybe the wording on them backing out from the Raiders is probably accurate, right? Like there's really no other, but there's no other way to describe what we're witnessing right now with this deal falling through outside of Baltimore may be getting a little bit of cold feet. Now, ultimately, if they did, I think there are a lot of football reasons you can come up with. to try to justify that, right? Like, it is still two first round picks

that they were going to send out the door. We talked yesterday about how this deal is kind of right on that line, a discomfort for, you know, making a deal for a guy who was going to be approaching 30, given how much he's played in the tread on his tires and the fact that he's fresh off of an injury.

But still, you were not, I don't think you weren't duped here, you weren't tricked here. Nothing was obfuscated, to our knowledge, at least, at this stage on this negotiation and ultimately this deal that's not going through. So I think you kind of have

to give Baltimore the side eye on this. I think particularly if they go out and sign Trey Hendrickson, which I think is where a lot of heat is at, who was a guy who was coming off of like abdominal surgery, I believe. So again, the optics of this from Baltimore are about as rough as they can be. I don't know if you can justify this with

one press release, I don't think. Yeah, they could say, you know, if they really feel like maybe the Raiders weren't forthcoming with Max Crosby's medical, they could get that message out there really quickly and say, all right, you know, they told this one thing, but we had him in and they didn't disclose this and all of a sudden it looked

different. Now, I will say this stuff has happened before. You know, Jeff's Rebeck of the athletic pointing out it's happened with the Ravens in 2020 with Michael Brockers in 2018 with Ryan Grant where you agree to a deal. You have the player in. He doesn't pass your physical. And to be clear, the physicals are not like universal. The Ravens could fail him with their physical and another team could trade for Max Crosby and say, yeah, he passed our physical. He's fine. So it's not. It's not like one size fits all. So there is some wiggle room here for the team. There's also a reason why all these deals, you have the disclaimers. Deals can't be finalized until the first day of the league year, which is Wednesday at 4 p.m. Eastern. There's a reason why they always say pending physical.

So there's that aspect of it as well. And Diana Rossini, again, she reported after Max Prosby underwent testing at the Ravens facility, Baltimore made the decision as an organization that it could not move forward with the deal based on the results of the medical. So that is one possibility. I think there's a very easy tell here, Deonte. I don't think you back out if you're just having second thoughts about it. Now, maybe I'm wrong about that. But you're right.

We discussed this and we're both like, yeah, I'm kind of on the fence. We're talking to each other about it. I don't know. What do you think? Yeah, you know, my gut says I kind of love that they're just going for it with this window. But then the analytical part of my brain's like, is it smart to give up two first round picks for a guy who's entering his age 29 season and has played so many snaps and is coming off an injury. So it was a difficult decision. But I have to imagine you had all

those conversations. You agreed to the trade. You had him in for the physical. Like at that point, I don't think you're having second thoughts. But I'll tell you this. If by the time people listen to this, the Baltimore Ravens have signed Trey Hendrickson to be their number one edge rusher, then we're all calling BS. We're all calling it. We're all. call and foul play on this, because that's the X factor in this to me, is the fact that Trey Hendrickson, we all thought was maybe the number one free agent on the market, that as soon as Monday came around, an hour in, we are going to say T-Mex for over $30 million, that he's that type of player. You thought you got the Jalen Phillips deal, right?

You would have thought he got the, at least, at least the Jalen Phillips deal, maybe a little higher, $31, $33 million per year. Right. That has not happened as we sit here late. Tuesday night and talk about this move. So if they're having conversations with Trey Hendrickson's agent and Trey Hendrickson saying, I would love to play there and they're saying, man, we can actually make the money work. And now we're keeping the 14th overall pick. And now we're keeping our 2027 first. Sure, Max Crosby is a better player than Trey Hendricksson,

but it's not like a massive gap. I mean, I think they're probably in a similar tier or maybe Trey Hendricksons's one tier down. And so if you're the Ravens and you say, we didn't think, we thought there was no chance, Trey Hendrickson was going to be a possibility for us. That's why we did the Crosby trade, but now we can take Hendrickson, we can adjust other needs on our roster. If that happens, if Trey Hendrickson, the signing is announced in whenever the next 24 hours, then I have no time for Max Crosby failed his physical with the Baltimore Raven. So that's where I'm at with this story.

I mean, you kind of have to be, right? Like, again, because Jerry Henderson is coming off of a surgery of his own, There's just no way optically to clean this up if you're Baltimore. And hey, you know, Baltimore can take a very Machiavellian approach to this and say, it doesn't matter what we said we were going to do. At the end of the day, we deal it's in the best interest of Baltimore. And you're going to have to deal with the damage relationships that come across the league as a result of that.

That's on Eric DeCosta, right? And Steve Bichotty, ultimately, to have to wear if that's the way that they choose to operate this business. But I do think that for us as analysts, as reporters, as fans and as viewers of this league. I think that it is fair, I think, to look at Baltimore and say, hey, man, there's been, you guys have spent decades now being considered one of the most story franchises, one of the most level-headed and even keeled through all these negotiations. You guys always play the long game. So if you make a decision, we're to assume that you have walked every potential outcome

out and you are doing what's in the best interest of the Ravens. This was already out of character for them, them trading away this much draft capital for a veteran. And then to yank it back, right, a couple of days after. Again, man, like, I just don't know how you can explain this away. Even if he, even if Max Crosby was to go back to the Raiders and the Raiders were to say, yeah, he actually does have a knee issue that might hold him out at the start of the season. Still, again, these negotiations happened. And I think when you're bringing a guy like this in, you do so on the assumption that it could be as bad as whatever your worst case scenario might be. And I think it would be particularly nasty. I'm sorry, if you go get Trey Hendrickson and, and, you know,

And if they do end up still trading away some draft capital to go bring in another impact player. That to me would be like the most Machiavellian. We don't care what anybody thinks of us. We're doing what's for the Ravens and nothing else. But I think that might be on the table if you're willing to back out of this deal. That's what I was going to ask you. If you're a Ravens fan and you're looking at this and your team's kind of getting ripped now for backing out of this deal, well, you're talking to your friends who are Ravens fans.

and let's say three days from now, the Ravens have signed Trey Hendrickson. Let's say they've traded for A.J. Brown. And let's say they still have their 2027 first round pay. Are you saying, are you saying, listen, it's a cutthroat business. And we got to do what we got to do to improve our team. And I feel great about having Trey Hendrickson, AJ Brown in my 2027 first. It's a dirty business. It's the NFL. No one said these were Boy Scouts out here making these deals. Everyone stopped. You're complaining. Or are you saying, ooh, the karma aspect to this. I don't feel good. I don't feel good about this. Is there a Crosby curse? Is there just now everyone knows exactly what we were doing. It wasn't on the up and up and it's going to come back to bite us. What do you think if you are put yourself in the shoes of Ravens fans? Which side of that do you think they'd be on?

Man, I think you got to wear a little bit of both of that, right? Like, I don't know if you've ever heard the adage in relationships. How you get them is how you lose them, right? So if you're willing to be flippet about your relationships, man, you're inviting a certain kind of energy into your home. You can't be mad if that energy kicks back in a way that hurts you ultimately. But still, I think ultimately the only way I would feel about this is like, wow, what a move by Baltimore.

Clearly, this is double birds to everybody because Baltimore is only interested in maintaining Baltimore's relationships internally. and that I would just love, I would probably be reaching out to my editor Lindsay Jones to ask what it would take for me to be at the owner's meetings, right? Because I just want to be a fly on the wall

with Steve Ashati and Eric DeCostagal go walk through that hotel and have to see all of their peers walking around for a week or so. That would be the thing that I would probably be thinking most. Oh my gosh, I forgot about that. This is so good for content.

This is so good for, you know, Roger Goodell somewhere. Araport moment between like NFL owners where they're arguing over Starbucks or something like that. Oh, this is great. Roger Goodell is so happy somewhere. He's like, this is just going to dominate the new cycle. You know, Romeo Dobbs to the Patriots. All right. It's a little bit interesting. It's not like this because you're right. For those who don't know, the owner's meetings later this month, all the owners to send on one fancy resort and they're all staying there. There's GMs and their coaches and their families. And, you know, they're kind of hanging out. Maybe some beverages are consumed. Everybody's in the same space. You can't totally avoid the other people. This will be the talk of the owner's meetings in a couple weeks here.

So that's where the Ravens go. We know where the Ravens. They got to find an edge rusher now. Let's see if it's Trey Hendrickson or not. They got to do some spin, maybe, some PR work. Again, it's possible that they just failed them on the physical. That is possible. I don't think Deontay and I think it totally passes the sniff test here.

So that's where the Ravens go. We see what they do now that they have those picks back. And they still need some help there on defense. All right, the other side of this. The Raiders and Max Crosby. So the Raiders take Max Crosby back, but they go from a place of free agency hasn't started yet. All the bidders we can talk to.

Let's get the best offer it. It looked like they played this perfectly, getting two first round picks for them, including 14th overall. It's not like they were getting the 31st overall pick. Like they got a nice haul for Max Crosby. now they're in a place where everyone knows they're trading Max Crosby, where other teams have already made moves in free agency to agree to terms,

not sign those deals, but to agree to terms. And now there are some questions about his medical where teams might say, all right, before we actually, like, let's not even leak this yet. We got to make sure that what we see is what we want to see with Max Crosby, where all of a sudden they got to get back on the phone. Now, I think they will definitely still have suitors, There were other teams that were interested, but it does get a little trickier here, Deonte. What do you think happens now with Max Crosby?

We can get to the specific teams in a minute, but just from the Raiders perspective, what they might get back compared to what they thought they got back in that trade with the Ravens. That's a tough thing, right? This was not a, hey, everything was great in Vegas, and they just got this Godfather offer and just had to let go of Max Crosby. I mean, days before, I guess, within the window of time in which this deal was initially put out, you get the story from the athletic that Max Crosby was really miffed by Alex Grasio having so much pull in the building. And that's a couple months after you hear reporting that Max Crosby was already kind of aggravated with the organization for shutting him down before their week 18 game and really kind of pushing him towards getting that surgery so that way he didn't play to complete the season.

right? So that, I don't know, you can't, you're obviously, this relationship has kind of ended, right? I think that within his long kind of farewell to the organization, I think he also made it clear that like his frustrations was not only not winning, but what's going on in the organization, he is ready to move forward. I think if you're the Raiders, though, you have to be so aggravated that the failed physical piece of it is out there. Because now, like, let's say you're the bears and you've still got a little bit of cap space. And maybe we're willing to rework some other contracts to try to manufacture a little extra. I'm coming back to them and saying, okay, we'll take Max Crosby for the same thing that we got for DJ Moore. And that's not going to be satisfying at all if they're the Raiders. You had two first round picks on the table. What if another contender calls, right?

What if the 49ers call and say, hey, again, we'll lay out a second round pick. Maybe we'll give you a second round pick in a fourth. We'll kind of beat the DJ Moore deal a bit, but you're not going to get a first rounder out of us because we'll also lean on the he's not going to pass physical thing. So it just gets, it makes it so thorny. And I think that that's why it's fair when you see guys like Tom Pelliserra at NFL Networks talk about how GMs are reaching out to him

and saying that this is BS and Bush League operations by the Ravens because it does throw a wrench in how the rest of these negotiations could play out now that Max Crosby has to be dealt again. One thing I don't think is going to happen though, I don't think he's going to be released or designated as opposed June 1 wave or anything like that. He still has some trade value out there. I just don't think you're going to be able to drum up enough of a market for them to get anywhere near the return they just did from Baltimore. I think they still get a first round pick. I think that's on the table. I think that's on the table.

I think the tricky thing is like the Cowboys, you have to presume they're out. I know that there's some reporting from Diana Rossini I saw before we got on that they said they've moved on. Obviously, they've committed some money to Rashon Gary. And I think a lot of other teams have kind of done the same, right? The Titans have made moves for edge rushers. Are any of them in the same realm as Max Crosby? No, but there's still eddressers that have been paid for. The Patriots went and broadened

Draymont Jones on a pretty hefty deal. Is it 30 million? So no, does it preclude them from Max Crosby? No, but the mechanics of it and logistics of it get a lot more difficult for teams that have already been making commitments elsewhere in the league. So I do think if you do get a one, this might end up being one of those things

that have to wait until draft day where a team that doesn't get access to an edge rusher they had circled as well as to say, okay, we'll make a deal today to go get that guy. I just don't know what the impetraiser this is going to be over the next month or so to get a deal done for Max Crosby, which makes it really uncomfortable, I think, if you're the Raiders. And the other aspect to it for the Raiders, the Raiders have spent wildly.

They've spent more than any other team in free agency. Now, I don't think that getting Max Crosby back, it's not like, oh, they can afford these other players. Now, if they wanted to play a little, you know, if they had second thoughts on, let's say, the quitty pay deal, could they say, hey, we didn't sign it yet. This is out of our control. They could do that. I don't anticipate that that's going to happen.

they are not being forced to do that, certainly. So, all right, let's take a break. We come back. I want to get into some of the other teams that could be interested because, you know, a domino like this falls and it is a cutthroat business. Or now other GMs might look and say, we weren't interested for two first, but we're interested now. The price has come down.

We're interested now. So let's get into some of those teams when we come back. All right, we're back here. on the Ringer NFL show. You know, we just caught up on a bunch of the coverage, Deonté, during the break. And there is nobody that I can find league wide that is, say, that is kind of taking Baltimore side on this, that is making the case that, you know, no one's reporting. One GM said this, you know, happens from time to time.

No one's saying that everybody is kind of calling the Ravens out, even though they don't have, like, you know, they don't have full information. They're on the outside like we are, but this is not sitting well around the NFL. Now, having said that, teams that could potentially be interested. You mentioned the Cowboys. Yeah, the reporting there seems to be that the Cowboys are not getting back in on this. They make the Roshan Gary trade. What a ripple effect that would be if they backed out of the Roshan Gary trade.

And now, you know, he said he was hacked with the Instagram post. The hacker can win. The Instagram post can go back up and he can just be released. because it sounded like the Cowboys were very interested at Max Crosby. What a what if that is that Crosby could have potentially been a cowboy but because of the way this went down, they weren't. Now, the team I'm looking at, I think even you said,

Ischiel, here's a $100, you bet on one team where he lands. I'm looking at the Chicago Bears here, Deontay, because there was a lot of smoke that they were interested in Max Crosby. I think there was even one report that the bear, had offered multiple first round picks, but that the Ravens pick ahead of the Bears, so the Raiders said, we're going to go with the Ravens.

So now if you can get him for a first and something else, you haven't signed an edge rusher. You haven't made huge moves. You signed Devin Bush. You signed Kobe Bryant. Now if you add Max Crosby to that, you're probably pretty excited if you're the Chicago Bears. So that's my one team.

I don't know if you have the same team or not or what you think about that bear's possibility. I think the bears, again, if you're asking me, if you were putting money in my hand and saying, I've got to lay a chip on one spot on this roulette board. It will probably be Chicago, right? Like, I think that the situation aligns well enough for them to go make that deal, even if it does cost them a first round pick because of what they net it back in the DJ Moore trade, right? They can say, hey, we can take some twos. You know, we can pair together enough draft capital once we get to draft day to be able to recuperate whatever we're going to lose in this Max Crosby trade. we already have so many other pieces on this roster that I think are kind of in need of a force multiplier like Crosby to put it all together. Outside of that, I do kind of struggle to see what the rest of the market may be, maybe Cincinnati calls, right? That would be kind of interesting. Right. I don't know if you heard the-

Jamar Chase rant over the weekend when the train went out, right? I think that you might hear a different tune from him when he's playing Call of Duty on stream, right? if you have Max Crosby in tow for him. But other than that, it is kind of a struggle, I think, to find a comfortable landing spot, right, where all the situations align. The only other team I could think of that we haven't mentioned would be the Chargers,

and I just think the Indivision tax is too high for them to make a deal like that come together. And the Raiders might say, even if they had the best deal on the table, that the answer is no. So the Chargers is an outside shot. I don't know if that would happen. But I do like the idea of the Bengals,

and I really like the idea of the Bears, and I would maybe put the 49ers and Patriots tied for third. Yeah, there was a report that Tom Brady didn't want to trade him to the Patriots, right? I think that was out there. I didn't think that was out there. Listen, I'm sorry, Raiders fans, man. That's bad jamming. I'm sorry.

That's like, that's bad operations, man. Who has time for petty stuff like that? I mean, yeah, I think you and I both like a little petty. But yeah, that's a, that's a, if they're making you the best offer, they haven't made a big, they haven't made a huge splash yet at the Patriots. They are a potential team here. Now, I have a question for you. A deal for Max or a deal for A.J. Brown.

I think if you're the Patriots, which way are you leaning? Or how about this? A deal that includes A.J. Brown and Max Crosby. It's Howard Rosen getting on the phone and saying, hey. That would be fascinating. We didn't want to offer you two first round picks. But what if we gave you, I don't know, A.J. Brown in a second for Max Crosby. Who says no to that?

I think the Eagles say, let me sit with that. Or can we get a later pick back, right? Can we get a later pick back? AJ Brown and the second to Max Crosby in a fifth or something? A five, right, or four or five. I think a trade could be consummated under those, with those details. Listen, a few weeks ago when we were doing off-season storylines, I think the top two on our list were Max Crosby's trade market and AJ Brown's trade market.

And as we sit here on the night of March 10, both guys are back. AJ Brownhatton has never left. But Max Crosby is still with the Raiders there. So yeah, it all depends on Price if you're the Patriots, if you're another team here. I am sure Howie Rosen is probably going to call at least because they have a distressed asset. Yeah, they had interest in bringing Jalen Phillips back. They don't bring Jail and Phillips back. They still have a need at the edge position.

and I'm sure they're at least checking there. The other team I thought of, the commanders signed Odafeo way to a big deal, $25 million per year. But it also feels like they've sort of been runner-ups maybe for some other. And I was looking at that roster earlier today, and I'm like, man, that roster still needs a lot of work. Do they say, hey, we're revamping this defense.

Let's go get Max Crosby. Maybe we don't have to give up this year's first, but we're doing something else there. there's kind of an agreement that's worked out. I was thinking about the commanders a little bit, but you're right. I mean, the problem, if you're a Raiders fan, this sucks because one, you thought you met, you know, you don't want to lose Max Crosby in the first place because he's been your only good player, but you understand the situation.

Then you get to the point, this is how you cope as a fan. You say, all right, we want him, but he doesn't want to be here. Let's at least make sure we maximize what we get from him. And then they trade him for two first round picks. And there wasn't an analyst on the internet in the podcasting space on TV who said, oh, the Raiders didn't get enough for Max Crosby. No, there was universal praise that you did a good job, maximizing your return for Max Crosby. You're feeling good.

The vibes are better. Tyler Linderbom, we praise the Nacobo Bede deal. Yesterday are. You're getting some professionals in the building. You're building around Mendoza. And now here you are 24 hours later. And it's like, is Tom Brady? Alex Guerrero. I know Alex Guerrero's not the one actually calling GMs, but I don't know what he's doing.

Who knows? Who knows? And SpyTech, it's just like, do you trust them? This is a very tricky situation because now these other teams that would have been interested, that would have maybe given you two first round picks, or at least the first and the second have moved on and they don't want to back out of their deals. And now you just, the pool of suitors has shrunk and you are uncertain about the people steering your ship. And now they have to navigate. this tricky situation and you have no idea how it's going to end up. So life is back to being very difficult, Deont. It was a fun 24 hours as a Raiders fan maybe,

but life is back to being very difficult for Raiders fans. I mean, this has to just be the worst thing in the world, right? They so often it ended up being the butt of the junk. I know for me doing power rankings every week, I always kind of had some quip about just how useless and how feckless of a season this had been for the Raiders. And this would have been the one thing where if you had to tell them, you have to suffer through what 2025 was for them.

But on the back end of that, you'll have an opportunity to net back two first round picks for a player whose timeline doesn't match your rebuild. You would be like, okay, I can go through that. I can grit and bear it through a rough season if you're telling me that we're going to speed up our rebuild by getting some extra draft capital. And now to be here, where I think I was just reading a tweet

from Diana Rusini that there's a feeling in the league, then now the Raiders are going to be the ones having to initiate these calls to try to drum up some interest again in Cosby because everybody does now have the leverage of this failed physical being out there publicly, right? And this is, again, this comes back to why Baltimore, I think, has to hear the shame bells a little bit. I'm really disappointed in the order of events, even if in my heart of hearts, I can understand why knowing a guy has a failed physical

might give you a little pause. This is just a really, really tough situation that Baltimore has put the rest, not only Las Vegas, but the rest of the league in. embrace the heel role, Ravens. You know what? They just come out. If they're going to sign Trey Hendrickson, they should just come out and say, this league's about winning. We want to win a Super Bowl.

We're not here to make friends. And until the ink is dry, you know, whatever your parents tell you when you get your first job offer, whatever it is, hey, don't go around telling your friends you got the job. Until that thing signed and you turned in the doc you sign and it's an agreement. I know my dad has told me that over the years. Until it's signed, nothing is actually official. So they should just embrace that, turn this into pro wrestling,

that hey, too bad for them. You know, they shouldn't account of their chickens before they hatched. We didn't know Trey Hendrickson was going to be available. We have a better chance to win a Super Bowl now than we did with the Max Crosby trade. And anyone who's complaining about it, you would have done the same thing in our shoes. Oh, man, that would be so fun if the Ravens just came clean. Have them come out and do the Ray Lewis dance pregame, you know? You're giving you like drum it all the way up.

Drum it all the way up. I'm all for it. What a story. I love it. I'm telling you, this got my juices flowing when this came across the timeline. I love the other stuff. But a story like this now with finger pointing and GMs are appalled and we don't know how it's going to be resolved.

And there's another shooter drop with what the Ravens do and what the Raiders do now with Crosby. I was even thinking it doesn't look like this is going to happen. But can you imagine if now teams started backing out of their. agreements with some players because they said, man, we didn't know we could get Max Crosby. I'm sorry, O'Dafay O'A, we don't want you anymore for $25 million per year. I'm sorry, Jalen Phillips. We're not signing you for $30 million per year because that was going to be official on Wednesday, but now we have a chance to get Max Crosby.

Now it doesn't look like that's going to happen, but I'm not ruling anything out with the way this story could go here. And like you said, I don't know when it's going to be resolved. Is it going to be resolved by the time people listen to this? Or are we going to be doing a pod next week saying, all right, where are we with the Max Crosby discussions? Are we going to be doing a pod the week of the draft saying, is Max Crosby going to get traded this weekend? There's no telling how long this thing could drag on. So amazing story.

Did we miss anything? Deontay with the Max Crosby story. I don't think so. I'm still trying to catch my breath, man. So far I was actually, we were running a workout at the high school. I'm coaching that. And everybody ran up because they know what my job is. They all ran up to me with their phones out.

Oh, man, it looks like you got to go back to work. Right? Like, you got stuff you got to get to. And I'm like, you're absolutely right. I was floored. I've been floored for the last two and a half hours now trying to wrap my mind around what we've been looking at. Yeah, I sent Deonté four different versions of the rundown today.

You know, first one was it's kind of quiet. Maybe we'll hit on some teams that we didn't hit on. I was like, all right, we've got some signings. We'll lead to this. Then we'll hit on some other teams. And then it was, scrap everything. Have you seen this story about Max Crosby? We got to get into every single angle.

So we'll see what happens with this story going forward. We'll continue to talk about it. But let's get to some of the other signings, Deonte, around the NFL. Then now they don't have the same juice, but they still are interesting in terms of, hey, first two days of free agency. This was kind of the second wave. And let's go to New England, a team we just talked about. Could they get back in on the Max Crosby deal? they could call the Raiders and try to do that.

Are they still interested in A.J. Brown? Well, they signed a receiver today. It's not an A.J. Brown level receiver, but they signed Romeo Dobbs $17 million per year. What did you make of that signing and how do you think it affects their potential pursuit of an A.J. Brown trade. I'm just cracking me up, right? I've always been such a believer of good team stay good and bad team stay bad. And in the podcast yesterday, we talked about Tennessee putting up basically the exact same contract to Wondell Robinson on day one of the legal tampering period.

And my thought then was, why wouldn't you just lay that contract out for someone like Romeo Dobbs, who was clearly a better player? Or Rashid Chehid. Right. And sure enough, New England goes out and gets Romeo Dobbs for effectively the same contract that Wondell Robinson got signed to. This is exactly how New England can protect itself against regression, right? You think about two years ago after the commanders goes to the NFC championship game and all the vibes are great. They kind of sit on their hands a bit outside of the Laramie Tunsel trade and then they

don't really go anywhere, right? And you see that the season kind of craters last year. I think New England is wise enough to know that their run to the Super Bowl was not as good in terms of play quality as what they would like to be. And they recognize the AFC is extremely competitive. And this is a step in the right direction. And the best part about it is not only Romeo Dobbs' place,

not only does Romeo Dobbs' play style not preclude you from going to chase a guy like AJ Brown, the money doesn't either. They still have the cap space and they still have the draft capital to say, hey, we might be able to supercharge this thing by bringing in a guy like Dobbs to be our move around number two guy.

Maybe you bring in AJ Brown to be your number one guy and you still have a kid like Kyle Williams out there to be a field stretcher. That would be a nice trio actually. That sounds like a pretty complete, you know, wide receiver room. And now that also takes some stress off of Hunter Henry, who I liked last year, but it's not going to be the most explosive tight-in in the league. That would make it really easy in terms of life for Drake May in the pocket,

especially knowing that they're not going to try to put the ball on his hands, I think as often next year as they had to this past season in order to get wins. So I like the move, and I like the fact that it still leaves a door open for them to be the team that they ultimately want to be in 2026. Yeah, I think Dobbs is a solid wide receiver too. You can kind of pencil him in for 600 to 800 yards. The efficiency stats are pretty good with him. 24th out of 77 wide receivers last year in yards per route run.

I had him projected for about $14 million per year, but I was low on a lot of these guys because that's kind of what happens in free agency. He's only 26 years old. So you think, hey, maybe his best years can be ahead of him here in this offense. He's a good route runner. So they have money. They had a need. set the floor a little bit because, listen, they had a top five offense in the regular season last

year, and it was not a great wide receiving court. It was not a great offensive line. So to your point, they're definitely not like, oh, we were fine last year and we can run it back. They're trying to upgrade, even with some of the offensive line moves they're trying to make here. So I'm with you. I don't think it precludes them from trading Frasier Brown. It certainly gives them a little bit of leverage, you know, because in my head, I'm just picturing Howie Roseman and the Patriots just like in this staring contest. 100%. You know, maybe there are other teams involved.

It doesn't, it feels to me like those two teams have known for a while. This is probably going to happen, but we don't want to give in. Well, we don't want to give in. And they're just kind of going back and forth in this game of chicken. And so I think it gives them a little bit of leverage where they can say, we were good last year and we didn't have a number one wide receiver. And we sure, we would like AJ Brown, but we're not going to just meet your price. And now we got Romeo Dobbs who can replace Stefan Day.

We can draft a wide receiver. And I don't know if you want to wait until after the draft. Because what if we draft a really good wide receiver at 31 or in the second round? Then we're definitely not giving you what you want for Agent Brown. So I think this back and forth is kind of continuing. But I'm with you. If I were a Patriots fan, I'd be like, A.J. Brown, Romeo Dobbs, and Kyle Williams, let's go. I'm feeling pretty good about Drake Bay with that group.

Not only next year, next two, three years. I can compete. I don't have to touch that position. I can go offensive line. I can go tight end. I can go running back. I can go defense. I don't have to touch that position for the next two to three years here. So yeah, I think that that's still in play, whether it happens or not, we'll see. But I did like that Romeo Dobbs signing. All right, let's take one more break. We'll come back. I want to get to the Eagles signing Rik Wullen. I want to get to the Jets trading for Gino Smith and some other stories to get to here on the second day of the legal negotiating period. All right, we are back here on the Ringer NFL show. Maybe the more surprising signing I thought, Deontay, is that the Eagles signed Seahawks

cornerback, Rieck Wullen for a one-year deal. And it's got the dreaded, if you're an agent, up to phrasing here, $15 million per year, which means it's not $15 million per year. That is with, you know, incentives if he hits all those things. But I did not expect the Eagles to throw money. at a cornerback in free agency. What did you make of this move by the Eagles? I think that the ultimate success that they had,

and it's not like this was a roaring success with the Dory Jackson last year, but I think that during the back half of the season, once things stabilized, I think that Adory Jackson played well enough for them to feel like their backfield was pretty stable defensively. And I expected them to maybe take another shot at a guy like that, who has that kind of upside.

I just figured it would have happened on the back end of free agency. right? Maybe you get a guy like Marshawn Lattermore who might not have as much of a market because he's been banged up, he's kind of lost a step. Veteran guy played in a lot of defense. Somebody who big fan Joe could say like, hey, I've got a lot of respect for what he played like at his best. Let's see what he can give us.

I would have thought even if it was a guy like Tariq Willan, it would have been because his market was extremely cold because he went out and expected to go get paid $20 million per season or whatever the case may be as one of those big, you know, big, long, fast corners and it just never materialized. So for this to happen this early, right? A, good on Philadelphia, clearly for being able to go out and strike quickly on a corner that does have high upside.

And I am really fascinated now to think about what it could mean for Philadelphia's defense going forward, right? I think that ultimately if you were to lose a guy like Jaylon Phillips, I think, you know, there are going to be questions about what the long-term contracts are going to look like defensively. I've kind of tweeted about that when you just think about what they're going to have to pay for, their front seven, and then you add in the fact that Cooper de Jeanne and Quineau Missile will ultimately come up in years to come exactly what the shape of this roster will be like. These are the kind of moves along the margin that allows you to put those thoughts to the back of your head, because this just reminds you that Philadelphia can go get enough high-ceiling

guys that we could be talking next January about how this team is within range of being able to be able to win a Super Bowl potentially, right? Especially if you get the absolute best version of Tariq Willan that you can. So I'm excited about what the upside can be. I also recognize the fact that his name was up in around the trade deadline. Seattle didn't necessarily need him after Josh Job really seemed to break out. And they had a lot of defensive back depth that they were able to rely upon. So it's not like I think that this guy's going to come in and go back to being like an all pro level player.

He's going to have the interceptions that he did early in his career. But the upside, I think, is too tantalizing for you to be too cold on this deal. I think that there's enough for you to be encouraged by when you look at the entire body of work for Tariq Wyn and what he's going to be playing next to in Philadelphia secondary. This feels like such a boomer bust move to me. As you were describing it, it's either going to be next January. Everyone's got, I can't believe how he got away with it again. And he signed a one-year deal. And oh, my gosh, he is making less money than all these other quarterbacks who are out there.

And now look at it. Rick Wollin and Quiguan and Quiguan and McIntyre and Cooper Dijin, no one can pass on this team. where it's going to be like week five. And Vic Fangio's like, that guy's not playing for me anymore. I'm not playing him anymore. Yeah, because his strengths and weaknesses are like so defined where great. I mean, just the athletic at 6-4 with his coverage ability running a 4-2-6 or whatever it was, it's just like there's literally no one else in the league who has his combination of length

and speed. And it's not just that. His coverage ability has been very impressive when you just look at all the stats. He's playing man coverage and it's just like, you know, I was actually looking at it because I was, I was watching his film from the playoffs in preparation for the ringers Philly special. And that play, remember the NFC championship game where he got the taunting penalty? Yes. His coverage on that play was unbelievable on Poo. He was lined up on Pooka Nakua in the slot on an overroute one on one.

And he's in his hip pocket and makes a play on the ball where I wrote down like, oh my gosh. And then I'm like, wait, was this the play? And then I'm like, oh, yeah, this was the one where he got the taunting right after. And then he gives up a touchdown in the next play. So he can cover. He's athletic. He's long. He has that upside where it actually is really exciting if you're an Eagles fan

where you're like, man, those three, that could be the best corner trio in the NFL. They've got that upside. And then he's got the other stuff. You know, he was benched a couple times in Seattle. One was for violating a team rule. Then it was for just kind of performance. He was in a rotation last year with the other quarterers where he was playing about 75% of the snaps. His tackling metrics are pretty terrible the last two years.

Yeah, he's not been a very good tackling. And it's weird because I was looking at it. His first two years in the NFL, he was good. And I know not everything shows up in the metrics, but you wouldn't look at anything from the metrics and be like, oh, he's a bad tackler. And in the last two years, you look at it, he misses like 20% of his tackle attempts, which, again, Vic Fangio, I don't know how long he would let that, but not that Adori Jackson was a great tackler, but he didn't have any other options. So he's got penalties. Of course, he will get beat.

I think what's most impressive about his skill set is that he gets beat, but because of his speed and length, the way he recovers is probably the most impressive part of this game. He's never out of it. He can get beat cleanly on the line of scrimmage. By the time the ball gets there, he's actually right there. So you look at it last four years. I think he's second in the NFL in past breakups. We know he's got the wide receiver background in high school and college. He's got 12 interceptions.

So I'm very curious to see how this one goes for the Eagles. I see why they did it. And I don't know which way it's going to go. I really feel like that one could go either way. I've been looking to the side this entire time because I've just been scrolling through old big fan geo defenses to try to see like, is there a guy physically who kind of checks the same boxes at Tarik one? did, and the closest you'd come to is Patrick Sartan

the second, who, Tariq Wollin, for all his upside, very clearly is not. Patrick Cajan might be a Hall of Famer, right? He's on a Hall of Fame trajectory as a corner right now. And clearly does not have a tackling problem, doesn't have a loss of discipline and coverage problem. Right, exactly. You know, like you're talking about a prototype, right, in terms of temperament and

ability and consistency. That's definitely not Tariq Wollin. So I am fascinated for a guy who, while it's very matchy in terms of coverage, they do still play a good amount of zone. So I wonder, similar to the conversation that I think existed with Philadelphia when you're bringing a guy like Drew McCuba and you keep someone like Sidney Brown on who are not your prototypical Fangio safeties, then maybe he's just saying like, hey, man,

just bring me some ingredients that got some high upside and I'll figure it out. Or maybe this is Howie telling them, hey, I can't totally break from my mold to build the Vic Fangio defense. Sometimes you're just going to have to take what's available. And this is the best guy available. let's see if you can make it work. But I do like what this team could be if this ends up being a heavy man coverage,

bump and run with Quinyan Mitchell and Tariq Willan out on the perimeter. You have Cooper DeGine who can match up with any slot receiver in the league. That's a pretty fascinating thing for me to think about, right? And I think that having a guy like Tariq Willan at his best, it also opens up an opportunity for you to think about how little that second safety spot matters now that Reed Blanketship is out and playing for the Texans. You're mitigating other weaknesses on this team.

If you're grading coverage, we don't have to spend as much time thinking about how Jalen Phillips isn't on this roster anymore because you're playing sticky. That was honestly the strength of the 2024 unit, right? Before the past rush got hot in the playoffs and late in the season. So it's entirely possible that this can work out and work out really, really well. Again, I think it's just going to take a little bit of time for me to wrap my mind around how someone like Willen fits into the prototypical Fangio defense

and what that's even going to mean when we get to the 2026 season. Yeah, Fancho is generally just, you know, he'll get asked about this at some point and we'll know right away whether he was on board like pushing for Rieckwlin. Well, absolutely tell us how he tells about him as a player. Or he'll say, I don't pick the players

and you'll be like, uh-oh, all right, Rickorins getting benched in the first month of the season. So we'll know right away. Vic Fangio certainly does not hide it. All right, next move to get to here, Deonti, that happened on Tuesday. The Jets trading for Gino's, Smith. So we talked about the Jets on the previous episode. If you missed that, check it out. But the one missing piece, well, there's more than one missing piece. But the big missing piece was like, well, what are they going to do at quarterback? And so the way this one worked with the Raiders is they ended up doing a pick swap moving from giving up 208 and moving back to 228. So moving back 20 spots there around 6 and 7 to acquire Gino Smith. Now, they could have just waited for Gino Smith.

to be released and paid him $1.3 million. But if they do that, now you're competing with other teams. He's a free agent. He can say, I don't think so. I'm not going back to the Jets. I'm playing somewhere else. So instead you trade for him and now he has no choice. But now you are paying $3.3 million.

So it's not a crazy amount, but you're paying $2 million more than you would have otherwise. That's according to pro football talk. So Raider is still picking up a big chunk of his salary here. Gino Smith back to the Jets. Deante, I mean, are you less confused than you were yesterday when we talked about the Jets? Are you more confused than you were yesterday when we talked about the Jets? What does this move tell you?

And how do you think this is going to play out? I have no additional clarity on this franchise right now. And that is, honestly, it's really Geno Smith is independent of Gino Smith in this deal. I was going to feel this way about the Jets regardless. I do think that in terms of finding a bridge quarterback, this was probably about the best option you could have gotten, especially since it seems like the Jets are very focused on. We want to clear the slate before the 2027 draft

to be able to bring in a young quarterback that we can hand the keys over to. I think their dealings for Minka Fitzpatrick and the veteran defenders that we talked about last year, or excuse me, last night, all those guys basically on one-year deals. It also tells you, we're just really playing out the string to get to next spring

and then we'll figure out what this roster is going to look like from there. And if you're Gino-Smith, Hey man, what a great way I think to close the book on your career, right? I think it's entirely possible that what we saw for the last month, month and a half when he was in Seattle and then what we saw for all of his tenure in Las Vegas, that might just be who Gino Smith is. And if it is, hey, man, like, what an interesting career arc for you to have gone from the basement to being an above average starter being a really good starter.

And then ultimately, as you age and make more mistakes, you start to see some of those cracks start to show in this game. But I do think that there's a way in which Geno Smith might be able to stretch things out for an extra year or two, right? Because he's going to have an offensive coordinator that's not going to be calling plays in the helmet that they didn't install during practice the way the Chip Kelly was in Vegas, right?

You're not going to have an offensive coordinator for his non-social, for his antisocial, as Frank Rex seemed to be at the end of his tenure in Carolina. I don't think he's going to be locked away in his office the same way the Chip Kelly was in Las Vegas last season. He's kind of the opposite of Chip Kelly in terms of probably like emotional intelligence. I feel like like Frank Reich,

but yeah, that doesn't mean he's going to be scheming it up. I mean, it's been a while since Frank Reich had sort of an edge. I think we kind of know what the Frank Reich offense is at this point, right? It's not going to blow us away. But if Gino Smith is the 23rd best quarterback on a rebuilding team, and they ride that out for a year, and then they say, hey, Gino, it's your choice on what you want to do with the rest of your career, I think that's fine for New York.

And if Virginia Smith, it just turns out to be it, your last shot to start in the league, again, I think it's just an interesting full circle moment, but no, I don't feel any better, worse or worse about where the Jets are at for 2026. I think the point you made about the one-year contracts is a key one that we probably didn't hit on enough when we had that Jets discussion yesterday. Because I do think as I was thinking about it more today and when this Gino Smith news came down, it's like it feels like they told Aaron Glenn, we can get you guys that you want and get you some of your guys. but let's be clear, we're not committing to any of these guys, basically beyond the 2026 season. Now, you know, Joseph Asai was like a three-year deal, but I think you look at the signings overall, DeMario Davis, you know, some of the other veterans that they added on that defense.

Even, you know, they signed to Sean Wright, the cornerback from the Bears. That was a one-year deal today. They're signing these one-year deals or basically they could be longer, but it's like these are going to be one-year commitments. and they're saying, yeah, like, if you want to show us that you need a certain level of player so that you can show us you actually are the right man for this job, whether this is said or unsaid, this is what I believe is happening, then, all right, we'll get you those players, but we're not signing guys for like the next two to three years because they fit Aaron Glenn.

That's not where we're at to me. There's such a division there between the coach who it feels like is coaching for his job. I mean, Eric will you need to every win. He cannot afford to have a season. Yeah, let's be honest. We're going to pick one coach who's going to be fired by the time we get to Halloween next year. Aaron Glenn, I think it's the favorite, you know, whether it's the Brian Callahan Award or whatever we want to call it. That's the Aaron Glenn is the favorite for that, whereas the front office actually seems to be aligned in the fact that let's maximize draft capital this year and next year.

Let's rebuild this thing. and let's not get into any bad contracts that we can't get off of by this point next season. And you know what? If Aaron Glenn coaches up this group and we have a surprising nine and eight season or whatever it is and the vibes are good, that's fine. Then we learned about Aaron Glenn and his ability. We gave him an extra year to turn this thing around. But let's be honest, it's probably not the most likely scenario.

And we're not going to get stuck, you know, trying to get guys for Aaron Glenn. and we know we're moving on a year later. So that's kind of how I see this jet situation right now. I'm right there with you, man. Like I said, like I said yesterday, I feel the same way today. Let's just get to Halloween so we can just kind of stop with the charade. And this is not a shot across the bow at Aaron Glenn. Like I had a lot of issues with how he coached

and how he managed his quarterback situation. The fact that the defense did not get any better under his watch than what it was when Jeff Ulrich was the interim head coach. and that team clearly was not interested in playing football very much at the end of the Aaron Rogers tenure in 2024. But still, like, this is a rough position to walk in a year two with, at least in Tennessee, it was like, all right, they just got their number one pick at quarterback. And Brian Callahan is your job to prove that you're not as adeptive of a coach as what you showed in 2024. And he just wasn't up to the task. This very much feels like a pre-fired type of, you know, table setting for New York.

So I do feel for them in that respect. and it's tough because this is absolutely the right move for the Jets. They traded away Soss Gardner. They traded away Quinn and Williams. They've totally reset this organization. There's no reason for them to be anchored to Aaron Glenn's coaching tenure or maximizing anything in 2026. But yeah, I think ultimately the best version of this is that this team loses.

Gino Smith is interesting, which makes Jets fans feel good because you get to bring back this guy who started his career there. And then we're talking around Christmas about how the Jets. are already, you know, showing up to college games to watch Arch Manning and Dante Moore. And they're really interested in either of these guys as a potential number one pick or a high pick or how they're already letting teams know that their 2027 picks are up for grabs to go get that number one spot, right? So that's kind of how I feel about it. That's where I'm at with it. And I think that that's just what's in the best interest for the Jets organization.

It raises the floor and potentially raises the entertainment value of the 2026 Jets. Now, let's be honest, Gino Smith was bad last year. Either way. Interceptive value in either way. Yeah, either way. We saw a lot of interceptions from Gino last season. I mean, he was 30th in EPA per play, 29th in success rate. He was terrible. There's no sugar-coding it.

I thought it was going to look a lot better. I thought he was going to play a lot better. He turns 36 this season. It wasn't a great situation. But again, I don't know, Frank Reich is going to give you a major edge schematically. O line should be better or should be pretty good, I think. So it's going to be better than what he had with the Raiders. You do have Breeze Hall.

Garrett Wilson is maybe the biggest winner here. Because I do think Garrett Wilson, you know, you get open. Gino Smith is going to throw you the ball and he's going to know where his bread is buttered. So I think that's good for Garrett Wilson. And I will say this, they've got four top 50 picks. I mean, if they have one of those drafts where it's like, oh, man, these are really exciting players and all these guys are getting on the field. Now you have Gino as a bridge QB. You draft someone next year.

Maybe you hit on some of these picks and you're feeling better about your roster going into 2027. It also makes it easier to evaluate the rest of the roster with a guy like Gino Smith versus a guy like Justin Fields. I mean, their styles of play are so different that like the ball's going to go where it's supposed to go. He might take some sacks, but then you can say, all right, our O line maybe is not as good as we thought it was going to be. And you'll be able to evaluate the rest of the roster if you draft a wide receiver or something this year better than you would have with another kind of unknown quarterback. So I'm fine with it. We'll say, let's see what they do in the draft. It's a weird team. I think we got to the right place in terms of what they're trying to do and what this probably looks like for the Jets in 2026 and 2027. All right, those were the big moves

from Tuesday. There's still a bunch of other moves happening. And I'm telling you, we're going to get to these other teams, the Bears, the commanders, the Cowboys, the Giants. What were the? I think those with the big ones. Bengals, Saints, Steelers, Seahawks. There's other teams we will get to as we continue here on the Ringer NFL show. We didn't know that the Ravens were going to back out of the Max Crosby trade. Okay. So you got to scrap your plans and you got to get to the biggest story in the NFL right now. All right. His name is Deontay. He's got to call him up right now on the ringer. com. Check that out. His takeaways from the first wave of free agency. Thanks to Deontay. Thank you to Christopher Sutton for producing

Stefano Sanchez on video. I'm Shield Capadde. We'll be back later this week on the Ringer NFL show. 21 plus and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and present in D.C., Kentucky or Wyoming. Gambling problem. Call 1-800-Gambler

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