Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the significance of the Maxx Crosby trade saga?
This hour is brought to you by Vasectomy Clinics of Chicago.
At the end, they're like, yeah, I'll take you up. Joe was like, I'll take you up. You go see the head coach, whatever, just before you leave. I was like, hell yeah. I was like, that's what I want to say. What's up to him? So I went back up. And I dap him up, and you can just tell the energy was a little bit off. And I'm like, okay. I'm not thinking anything of it. Maybe he's just different.
I don't know. I don't know him. Whatever. I go into the room. They sit me down on the couch, and he's like, man, I don't know how to say this, but one of our doctors has concerns with... You know, with the results and whatever, like with your knee, like some of them have, you know, are concerned about the future and da, da, da, da, da. And, you know, we really want you and this is what it is.
But, you know, we're just going to have to get more and more opinions.
Really, really inside stuff. Max Crosby on his podcast, The Rush, talking about his experience and how the trade fell through with the Baltimore Ravens. This is Rahimi Harrison-Grody on 104.3 The Score. And we go to our hotline and also Twitch, twitch.tv slash thescorechicago. That is where we can find Mike Sando joining us. He's the NFL senior writer for The Athletic.
He's a selector for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, officer for the Pro Football Writers of America, and he's covered every non-pandemic Super Bowl since the 1998 season. And oh, by the way, he has really good articles in The Athletic. Mike, we always enjoy having you on. Thanks for coming on.
Oh, it's great to be here. Thanks so much to talk about that. Crosby stuff's great.
Well, it is, and that was the impetus of why we wanted to have you on. It was a fever pitch, the want for Max Crosby here in Chicago. Bears GM Ryan Poles actually acknowledged discussions were had, and you had the article that came out in The Athletic, the Max Crosby trade fiasco, the Ravens' motivations, and how the NFL world reacted.
So what were your biggest takeaways from the work that you did on this piece?
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Chapter 2: Why are the Bears well-positioned to trade for Maxx Crosby?
He's a really good player. But yeah, it really took the leverage away from the Raiders to be able to maximize the price once the time passed. And then another team basically declared, this is too risky. Remember, there's human...
components that go into this now after the after the ravens who are perceived even if people are criticizing them as having a top front office which they are for a long time yeah now if you're a gm somewhere and you want to be the one out front to bring in uh max crosby
the owner and others are going to be like holding you to this standard that if he has, if he, if the Ravens look like they were right and he has an injury that lingers this season, yeah, it can be your butt on the line. So it makes it harder, I think, for other teams to want to step up unless you're super established. So, you know, I would watch some of those.
Maybe there's an opportunistic team out there that, uh, that wants to do this. I think it's fascinating now that we're going into this NFL League meeting for the owners to get together in Arizona later this month, and one of the proposals is to allow them to trade even more into the future of draft picks. Is there a future pick? Is there some team that's a win-now team
that's willing to give up a first-rounder three years, four years from now, right? I mean, I think it's not over, so we'll just have to see what happens the rest of offseason. It's just hard for the Raiders to be in control of it the way they were early because, like you said, the time passed. Yeah, and as you mentioned with the reputation of...
Eric DaCosta and their front office forever, even going back to Ozzie Newsome. As you wrote in the article, executives around the NFL voted the Ravens front office first and second in polling conducted by the Athletic in 24 and 25. You said that things could still happen with Crosby.
Do you think Ryan Poles at this point, considering what he's already done and not done in free agency, would still be interested? Or do you think the Bears are not in a position to take a risk like that on Crosby?
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Chapter 3: What were the main takeaways from Mike Sando's article on the Crosby trade?
Yeah, I mean, they've loaded up with a ton of defensive players. I think they're in position to take the risk. I mean, I think they're really in a great position coming off of last year. And if anything, it's going to be hard to live up to the expectations of last year. They won so many close games. I think they know that. I think fans know that. But I also feel like...
I think it would be applauded if they did it more than, oh my gosh, it's a risk, right? In the market there, people would be like, I love it. This is the new bears. They're going for it, right? I think you'd feel that even though we know that there is risk associated with it. the compensation would be a big part of that. I don't think you want to give up too much.
But they have made a lot of moves in free agency. They've added a lot of defensive pieces this year. So, you know, maybe they feel like those smaller pieces sort of round them out. There's been a lot of them on defense. So I can't answer that from, you know, how interested they'd be. But why would you ever say never? Why would you say never if there could be a price?
I think there is a price where you would like to do that.
No, absolutely, Mike. I think that that is also, we're in agreement on that. It just seems like common sense from where the bear standpoint is. Do it. This segment is brought to you by AlmostFreeTeeth.com. Save on dental implants today. Mike, you also did a story that studies the Seahawks pattern. And it was done about a month ago. Seahawks title underscores how to win in the modern NFL.
There's no going back. I appreciate how you look at patterns. And for all of the talk that we have about Howie Roseman in Philly being one of the exemplary GMs in the game, Mark and I talk a lot about how watching the Super Bowl broke my brain when it came to just the defensive standpoint, how well coached they were, how well executed everything was, how well the Seahawks have drafted.
And all of that goes back to their GM, John Schneider. How do you look at how he has affected how to win in the NFL?
Yeah.
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Chapter 4: What medical risks are associated with Maxx Crosby's trade value?
So I think over time, if you go back a long time ago, let's just go to the George Hallis Bears, there weren't very many ways to change your team, right? You could make a trade. Sometimes you'd see an eight-player trade or something. It was kind of the only way you could shake it up. There wasn't really free agency. It was discouraged, and the players were very limited in what they could do.
But as the game has evolved, They've added all these new ways, especially with the salary cap coming in. But even since then, even in the last five years, the way the game day roster is managed is totally different than it was before in terms of the number of people you can bring off of IR and that sort of a thing.
And so now we're talking about the Browns are proposing you can, like I said, trade even more picks. So what I've seen is more and more ways to get better or worse. And so the skilled GM is super valuable now. And it doesn't mean there's only one way to do it. I mean, Howie Roseman leverages a lot more financially with an owner willing to spend at high risk.
I mean, they could easily... There's a lot of people predicting their doom and gloom if they get an injury here or there. And John Schneider, I think, has been... He's really good at finding or working well with his coach as a partner. And I think early on with Pete Carroll, we saw that Pete was kind of in charge and John was able to kind of work with him.
They got a bunch of good players, lost their way a little bit. I think once you get good, it's tempting to fill in for need. And I think they did that for a while and it cost them. But then he resets, hires a perfect coach for him. Yeah.
somebody who can really hold people accountable, much like the coach Ben Johnson does, and knows exactly what he's doing on his side of the ball, much like Ben Johnson does. So if you have that right coach who can develop players and has a vision for them, you're going to have way fewer misses and way more hits, and you're going to develop guys.
So when I look at Seattle, they had a number of guys on their team contributing at the end who looked like they were liabilities early in the year. There was a guy by the name of Tai Okada, I think he played at Montana as a safety. He looked terrible when he first got out there. By the end, he was a good player. They could do it because the coach could adjust around them.
And so they'll have way fewer misses because of that. And then just being active and open-minded. Like I said, it's not just a draft and develop league. There's all these other avenues now to improve your team. And if you have a willing owner who's willing to spend... You can play around with the salary cap, and you can be a little bit more aggressive here or there.
And I think of John Schlander as a young GM. He's in his 50s, I think, now, but still has that young GM sort of mentality. And I think we're just seeing more of those guys. And a critical component really is the owner, too. You've got to have an owner willing to let you do it, and Seattle's going to sell their team. So we don't know what their owner's going to be after this.
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Chapter 5: How did the Ravens' motivations affect the Crosby trade discussion?
They're just in a situation where Devin Witherspoon is going to get top-of-the-market corner money. They're going to be paying Jackson Smith and Jigma probably the number one receiver money. Yeah. They're kind of making some choices now.
And I think in the case of, you know, a not their top corner or a running back who's been really good lately, but, you know, didn't have a great run necessarily out of the gates. That just wasn't where they were, you know. going to put a lot of their resources, but for another team that has a hole and wants to fill in, it can definitely make sense. So I do like Kobe Bryant.
I think that I've just been so impressed with Mike McDonald. I think that, you know, I'd be fascinated to ask Kobe Bryant after about training camp and after mid-season to compare those two coaches. Because I think there's some similarities in terms of their willingness and ability to hold people accountable in the building, including coaches. I think that's a huge part of it for him.
And so, you know, now he's going to have a defensive coordinator who's been a head coach, and we'll see how that goes. And maybe we can ask how he compares to Mike McDonald as well and see how the fit is, right? I think that's the... critical component now with these defensive ads this year for Chicago.
We really want to see, we know the visions there from Ben Johnson as the head coach on offense. We want to make sure that, hey, this is exactly what the D coordinator wanted and he can get the most out of these guys because these are the guys they're bringing in, right? This isn't who they inherited.
So I really want to see a Kobe Bryant pick up where he left off, you know, maybe not right away, but by mid-season, you know, be, you know, a really good player for them.
And Mike, you're always tuned into the NFL. Is there anything that you're hearing, just the impression of the Bears after this playoffs that you maybe want people to know or that you were interested in? Because I feel like we just talked about this. The Bears are being viewed by players differently. Is that happening among league circles as well? Maybe other execs and guys like that?
Yeah, I want to see how the chemistry of the team comes together because I think that that was a big thing in the first year and we could see that. But you get another year now, you get an offseason where the verdict's in on different players and how they fit. So, like, to me, on paper, trading DJ Moore, you know, that's a talented player. But I think they're taking it to more ā
than that to account for that. Right. And they've drafted obviously a bunch of guys on offense last year. So that's kind of what I really want to see is that the chemistry seemed good, probably better than expected the first year. Does this really become a, you know, even more of kind of a family this year when let's face it, they're probably going to have some more ups and downs.
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