Maxx Crosby Told Dianna Russini Personally That He Wants to Play for Mike Vrabel

Mike Stobe. Getty Images.

This was the scene at Foxboro back on September 7th. When the worst team in football inexplicably beat a team that's currently practicing to win the Super Bowl. Thanks in large part to Maxx Crosby's Raiders team-high seven pressures, one sack, and two QB hits. 

After the game, Crosby had this to say about his former head coach: “That’s my guy, I respect the hell out of coach McDaniels. He was always great to me. I have nothing but good things to say.” Which was a pleasant surprise, because after McDaniels got fired by the Raiders, he took the worst beating in Vegas since that part in Casino where Joe Pesci pops a guy's eye out of his skull with a letter press.

And today we find out McDaniels isn't the only member of the Pats braintrust Crosby has interest in working for:

“As for this upcoming offseason, outside just free agency, the thing that I’m going to be watching are these players that perhaps want trades. That’s what I want to see. Maxx Crosby doesn’t seem too happy in Las Vegas. Is he going to ask for one officially and ask out? Is that a guy? I can tell you, I know he wants to play for Mike Vrabel. He’s told me before.” 

--NFL Insider Dianna Russini, 2/4/2026

You heard it here first, folks. If not straight from the horse's mouth, than from the mouth of the horse whisperer the horse told personally. 

Ordinarily, this is not the time to be thinking about the future. But there's nothing ordinary about hearing Maxx fricking Crosby wants to play for your head coach. One of the top all around edge players in the league. Which just happens to be THE top area of need on the Pats roster. A 5-time Pro Bowler. Still only 28 years old.  With 69.5 career sacks in just seven seasons. Four of those with double-digit sacks. On the worst team in football and missing two games, he was still Top 20 in total pressures, sacks and QB hits. And he's such a gamer that he was reportedly furious to miss those two games, because the team shut him down at the end of the season to rest his knee. Against his will. 

And make no mistake, Crosby is just the first of many elite players, frustrated by losing, who'll be telling their agents to get them to New England, just like the good old days of Rodney Harrison, Randy Moss, Chris Long, and scores of others. There'll even be guys willing to take a pay cut to come play here, and keep the winning culture Vrabel has created going. It's just going to be a Perpetual Motion Machine of sustained excellence. The rest of the league will have to change the rules and start taking away draft picks in order to stop it.

I say again, I hope everyone in the other 44 states enjoyed the last few years. Because it's 2001 all over again in Foxboro. Your worst nightmare has returned. And it's not going away again for the foreseeable future. If ever.