Sunday was both some of the most fun you could ever have if you're a Detroit Lions fan and it was one of the most heartbreaking days too. The Lions have lost Pro Bowler Aidan Hutchinson for the rest of the season. It's just horrible news after he was putting up a no doubt Defensive Player of the Year campaign.
Now what? For Lions fans the answer seems simple. It's time to bring Maxx Crosby home. Lions fans have already been all over Twitter for weeks now talking about Crosby. Could the Lions actually trade for him? Let's talk about it.
I think this idea stems from two things. One of them being that Crosby played his college ball just up the road from Detroit at Eastern Michigan. The other is his mic'd up conversation with Penei Sewell at the Pro Bowl in 2022 where Crosby talks to Sewell about Dan Campbell and how Crosby likes him and grew up a Lions fan.
Max Crosby wants to be a lion so bad pic.twitter.com/bhXb7CrN1C
— 26🃏🐐 (@GibbsIntern) February 8, 2023
On top of that, Crosby also said over the offseason that if he could play for any other team if the Raiders didn't exist, it would be the Lions. Then there was this moment on Sunday that shows that there's some anger there with Crosby. He downplayed it, but come on man. Nobody was smiling and having a good time there.
Maxx Crosby on the Lions would really be something. With him Alim McNeill and DJ Reader in the middle and the rising Josh Paschal on the other side, that is one dominant defensive line we're talking about here, even without Hutchinson. Imagine what they would be with him back. But is it even possible that something like this could happen?
It's really up to the Raiders at the end of the day. At the moment, they seem like a team that is about to smash that rebuild button and have a full on fire sale. If they do that, it's usually the most expensive pieces that go first.
The Raiders just signed him to a new four year deal in March of 2022 and he then went out and had two Pro Bowl seasons. He's well on his way to doing that again this year. Being that he's only 27, you can still build around him.
If the Raiders traded him this season they would only owe a little more than $15 million in dead cap and they would open up a little more than $20 million in cap space. That would be massive for them and their rebuild to have that kind of money on board in year one.
In terms of trade compensation, this is a Pro Bowl player that's only 27 years old. The Raiders are going to want something big. There's a recent Raiders trade that could really give you the answer here.
- Raiders get: 2019 1st round pick, 2020 1st round pick, 2019 3rd round pick and a 2019 6th round pick.
- Bears get: Khalil Mack, 2019 2nd round pick and a 2020 7th round pick
This is not going to be cheap for the Lions. I don't know if it'll take four picks, but a first round pick will definitely be going out the door for this. I'm not sure the Lions would get something as good as a second round pick back either. If I were to make an offer to the Raiders, this is what that offer would look like with the Khalil Mack trade in mind.
- Lions get: Maxx Crosby and a 2025 5th-round pick
- Raiders get: 2025 1st-round pick, 2025 fourth-round pick, 2026 second round pick, James Houston and Malcolm Rodriguez
That would give the Raiders a lot to work with. I know you don't want to see Rodriguez go, but that would give the Raiders a young player they can build up and some draft picks to put around him. They're going to want a player. Who else would you send there? Houston isn't enough.
At the end of the day, it's all possible. The Lions can make it work and the Raiders could too. Last year I would have said no way, this year I think it's a real possibility considering where the Lions are right now.
