Ravens General Manager Eric DeCosta said today that his team badly wanted to acquire defensive end Maxx Crosby in a trade with the Raiders, but the process of a trade includes a physical exam, and that’s where the trade couldn’t be completed.
DeCosta said he’s sure it was hard for Crosby to learn that the his knee injury prevented him from passing the Ravens’ physical and hard for Raiders GM John Spytek to hear that the trade was off, but the Ravens had to do it.
“We were really excited about adding Maxx, potentially adding Maxx to our team,” DeCosta said. “I had already begun discussions with John Spytek, those discussions continued, we were really thinking that we were getting some traction. We did. As part of the normal trade process, there were a lot of different parts with the trade process, we’ve done a lot of trades. One of the key things is you bring a player in and try to get as much information as you can. We were not able to complete the process of trading for the player, based on our assessment of the situation.”
Ultimately, DeCosta said, he had to follow the medical staff’s advice and nix the trade.
“I’ve got a responsibility to the Ravens,” DeCosta said. “I understand how people from afar would feel that way, but nobody’s more upset about this than me. Gutted by it, actually, a big regret for me.”
