Las Vegas Raiders star Maxx Crosby was seemingly unhappy with the team’s decision to bench him for Sunday’s game against the New York Giants.
With the No. 1 overall draft pick potentially on the line in that Sunday, December 28, matchup, the Raiders announced on Friday that Crosby will not play in the game due to injury.
According to Fox Sports NFL Reporter Jay Glazer, Crosby “vehemently disagreed” with the idea and left the practice facility after hearing the news.
The Raiders reportedly wanted to shut down Crosby for the team’s final two games of the season.
The star defensive end has been dealing with a nagging knee injury since the Week 7 game against the Kansas City Chiefs, but has yet to miss a game this season.
Raiders head coach Pete Carroll confirmed that Crosby left the facility after the news broke, and said that the two spoke four times on Friday.
“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,” Carroll said via a video from Vegas Sports Today. “This didn’t just spring on him. We’ve been talking about it, and it was exactly what you would think he would do and he should do. I agree with him 1,000 percent on how he responded, and I [would have] responded the same way.”
“Hopefully, the right conclusion for his long betterment,” Carroll added.
Crosby has not practiced at all this week.
“He didn’t want to take the news like that,” Carroll said. “I didn’t want to take the news like that. So we just worked our way through to get to this point. He’s been practicing on Fridays. If we’d have let him, he’d have been out there, and he would not have hesitated, But he knows he’s banged up.”
Earlier in the week, Crosby told the media that the team earning the top draft pick was not a priority for him.
“I don’t give a s*** about the pick,” Crosby said. “I don’t play for that.”
He continued: “My job is to be the best defensive end in the world, and that’s what I focus on every day, and being a great leader and being an influence. That’s [the front office’s] job. But that’s got nothing to do with me.”
In addition to not having Crosby suited up for the game, the Raiders won’t have their star tight end Brock Bowers either, who was placed on injured reserve earlier this week.
The team announced Saturday that Crosby was also played on injured reserve due to the knee injury, ending the defensive end’s season.
The Raiders and Giants both hold a 2-13 record this season. The Giants currently hold the tiebreaker for the No. 1 overall draft pick in this year’s NFL Draft, but if the Raiders lose to the Giants on Sunday, Las Vegas will overtake that coveted spot.
Holding the top pick could give the Raiders an opportunity to rebuild their roster and grow the future of the franchise.
