Raiders trade deadline dilemma gets complicated by two stars who want to stay
SANTA CLARA, Calif.– Maxx Crosby needed all of a few seconds Sunday to explain where he expects to be when the NFL trade deadline passes on Tuesday. He plays for the Raiders.
He loves playing for the Raiders.As far as he’s concerned, he has a whole lot of football left to play for the Raiders.“I plan on being here for a very long time,” Crosby said.Kirk Cousins would be happy to report for work in Las Vegas on Wednesday, too.
He was also willing to acknowledge something about the next two days that applies just as much to Crosby as it does to him. Somebody else gets to make that call.“It feels a little bit out of my hands, so, I’ll just let decision makers make decisions and react accordingly,” Cousins said.There you have it.Two veterans who want to stay, one general manager who has to consider what either might bring back in a trade and a head coach who came away from Sunday’s game against the 49ers with one more piece of evidence about where his team stands.As Klint Kubiak put it, “Every day the calculus changes.”Consider how much it has changed already.
The Raiders were 3-0 with Cousins at quarterback.Four straight losses followed.
A win over the Jets got them back to .500 and gave Kubiak good reason to see what this group could do against San Francisco.Now they’re 4-5, with the Seahawks and Broncos coming up, and the one thing general manager John Spytek can’t do is wait for those results before deciding how to handle Tuesday.Cousins has re-established himself as a bona fide NFL starter after spending two seasons in Atlanta still trying to come back from an Achilles tendon injury. There is a market for that caliber of quarterback, with contenders like the Vikings and Eagles needing to improve their shaky quarterback situations.And with the Raiders eventually needing to move on to prized rookie Fernando Mendoza, opening the door for him could be accomplished by moving Cousins, who has always been seen as a veteran bridge to the f...