Ravens may have saved Les Snead from an early overpay for elite edge rusher

The Las Vegas Raiders' auction of veteran edge rusher Maxx Crosby is over. The winning bid appears to be awarded to the Baltimore Ravens, who offered up first-round picks in both the 2026 and 2027 NFL drafts for the perennial Pro Bowler. Now the question left in Los Angeles Rams fans' minds is, how close was general manager Les Snead's offer?

Several NFL analysts hinted that Snead was monitoring the situation closely. That's another way of stating that Snead had inquired about a potential trade. The thing is, LA knows the value of a player and seldom gets swept up in a bidding war that results in the team overpaying for a player.

Perhaps that is how this scenario played out as well.

As much as fans love Snead's aggressiveness when aiming for roster upgrades, history tells a different tale. Los Angeles has been frustrated at the NFL trade deadline before. The Carolina Panthers rejected trade offers for both running back Christian McCaffrey and edge rusher Brian Burns.

As a result, LA grew its own talent from later rounds in the draft. The Horns sometimes do better with Plan B than Plan A.

Maxx Crosby may not be an ideal upgrade for the Rams roster

While Baltimore Ravens' new edge rusher Maxx Crosby is indeed an elite talent, he may not have been the upgrade as a pass rusher on this defense that fans may have hoped for. And his uptick on the roster certainly did not add value for two first-round draft picks. Let's set up a data table to illustrate what I mean:

2024-2025 pass rush statistics

While it's clear as day that Maxx Crosby is an upgrade over former Rams edge rusher Michael Hoecht, it's tough to argue that he is a significant upgrade over either Byron Young or Jared Verse. That is particularly evident when you compare salaries. Crosby had earned $57 million over the past two seasons.

Byron Young earned $2.77 million. Jared Verse pocketed $6.2 million. Former Rams edge rusher Michael Hoecht banked $6.48. Crosby earned more than 20 times what Young earned. And the Ravens paid two first-round picks for the opportunity to cut $30 million in salary for his services in 2026.

Of course, statistics and data are not the whole story. Sometimes it works out that one player is better equipped than another. But unlike the 2021 season, in which the entire pass rush was handled by veteran outside linebacker Leonard Floyd and All-Pro defensive tackle Aaron Rodgers, this pass rush is truly a group effort from multiple contributors.

And those contributors are nearing the end of their rookie contracts.

The team is All In right now, and fans understand that. But cutting a massive check right now that would pay for nearly the entire defense (sans Trent McDuffie, lol) is something that could quickly backfire.

This defense is a tightly-knit group. If there are any veteran additions, they will need to bring an obvious upgrade as well as be knitted carefully into this group of passionate players.

As always, thanks for reading.