Hour 1: NFL Insider Tom Pelissero, plus Ravens Explain Backing Out on Crosby Trade

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22:39Rich Eisen:So this tax season, get your best possible outcome and every dollar you deserve without the guesswork. Visit TurboTax.com today to learn more. Real-time updates only in iOS mobile app. Only available with TurboTax full-service experts. Tom Pellicero here on The Rich Eisen Show. Our radio audience just returned. I gave you the floor on your reporting on what happened from Monday to Tuesday night in the offices of the Baltimore Ravens with Max Crosby getting there and then arriving there.

23:12Tom Pelissero:Well, let's start with the fact that no NFL trades can become official until the new league year begins. I've had GMs comment to me over the past several days that this is exactly why it should be allowed. And you should be able to execute trades anytime you want. If you acquire a player, let's just say on February 15th, why in the world would you have to wait until March 11th to make the trade official? Having said that, most trades, if you execute it, the medical is going to be done immediately within the next day or so. This one, for one reason or another, waited about four days before Crosby flew to Baltimore on Tuesday.

23:46Tom Pelissero:He was in the building. He was meeting with coaches. This was supposed to be a coronation. and instead the results of his physical come back. And it's not totally accurate to say it's a failed physical because there's a lot of shades of gray when it comes to these things. And what one team is going to pass a player on may not match what any other team does. We see it in the draft every year. There'll be, oh, this guy's got medical flags. He's going to slide in the draft. 31 teams might think that. The 32nd team goes, oh, the linebacker doesn't have an ACL. He's been playing without it for three years.

24:19Tom Pelissero:all right I guess he can still play we'll take him in the second round and that those are real things that happen all the time but what the Ravens really saw was a knee that is eight weeks post-op from a meniscus repair surgery anyone and I've talked to numerous teams as well as doctors about this is not going to expect to see a normal knee uh eight weeks after a meniscus repair a surgery that has a four to six month timeline uh and one that's occurring on a 29 year old player who already has you know seven eight years of NFL wear and tear on the knee as it is but what the Ravens came to the conclusion of was not that Max Crosby can't play now not that he's not going to be on the field but that over time they didn't feel comfortable with the investment in other words the years down the line was there going to be additional trouble with the knee was it going to become problematic that's why and Eric DaCosta alluded to this without giving details they ultimately decided that they weren't comfortable with what they were giving up in the trade.

25:19Tom Pelissero:Where other people, and I am talking about many current and former GMs, unanimously said to me is, this is buyer's remorse. It is dirty pool. It's BS by the Ravens. And that's because, again, you are accepting the risk. This was not an unknown injury for Max Crosby. He was on the injury report the whole season. He didn't practice much. He got shut down against his will with two weeks to go. Had surgery. Took photos before and after the surgery. And his agent, C.J. Leboy and Doug Hendrickson, from other teams I talked to involved, said they were very upfront. They said, listen, the doctors are saying he's not going to be cleared until June.

25:57Tom Pelissero:He's not going to do anything in the spring. But come training camp, come the season, he's going to be ready to roll. Again, I know that the Ravens consulted outside doctors, other teams' doctors, as part of their evaluation process. The real question here, and it's sort of unanswerable, is you are correct, Rich, that they are within their rights to rescind the trade. They had what's called a pre-trade agreement that allows them to examine Max Crosby, put him through a fiscal, and at any point, that document doesn't include trade compensation or anything else. It's just, hey, for this trade to go through, we need to have this agreement.

26:29Tom Pelissero:They're within their rights to pull back. But the question becomes, should they have known, should they have been essentially accepting of the risk that they were taking. Other GMs unanimously that I talked to said, this is just part of the process. You know what you're getting into with a surgery like this. You know what you're getting in the player. You just don't see trades like that stomped out, especially after you'd outbid a bunch of other teams. We can dive into the mechanics of meniscus repairs, Rich. I'm not a doctor, but in very simple terms, when you have a meniscus trim, that's just cutting out the injured piece of the meniscus.

27:08Tom Pelissero:Think of it like a hangnail. It's bugging you. You get some clippers and you clip it off. Meniscus repair would be like the really deep hangnail where it's starting to bleed and you know the skin's going to fall off and you wrap it up with a band-aid and you try to keep it tight. Meniscus, I talked to one doctor who's very heavy into the injury data who said meniscus repairs have a 50 % failure rate after one year, 80 % failure rate after four years based upon their data. And again, that doesn't mean the knee falls apart. It's not like a failed ACL reconstruction. But basically, it means you're going to have less healthy cartilage in your knee.

27:41Tom Pelissero:Your body cannot generate new healthy cartilage. That's all part of when, again, you hear that in the draft, which is like, well, this guy's fine now. But where is he going to be in five years? With Max Crosby, most teams wouldn't look at that with a veteran player and say, well, we're talking about the long term or even the medium term. He can play now. There's no doubt he's going to play in the 2026 season. The Ravens decided that was not going to be for them. And now everybody else, including Max Crosby, is left holding the bag.

28:06Rich Eisen:Tom Pellicero, the Doogie Howser of NFL Media, joining us here on the Rich Eisen Show. All right, so when did Trey Hendrickson enter the chat, Tom? Because that was the coup de grace, right? Like, for everyone to be sitting here wondering, what are the Ravens thinking? How do they put this back in the bottle in Vegas? How are the Ravens just going to be able to face any music from the rest of the league? and are they going to potentially, you know, not go full bore here? The answer is like, yeah, they turned a page. They got Trey Hendrickson. See you later. Wouldn't want to be like, you know what I mean?

28:45Unless they were trying to make that Crosby Hendrickson thing happen.

28:51Rich Eisen:And so they were already down the road with Trey. Tom, where do you enter the chat?

28:55Tom Pelissero:Trey Hendrickson hit the market. He was looking for 30 plus million dollars per year. it became apparent about 24 hours in that that was just not going to be the number. And then so, all right, maybe it's between 25 and 30. There were a bunch of teams that were engaged on Trey Hendrickson. You know, I did have a number of people who, after the Max Crosby trade fell apart on Tuesday night, texted me and said to the same people who were not thrilled with what the Ravens had done, were saying things like if they now turn around and sign Trey Hendrickson this week, it's going to look even worse for them.

29:26Tom Pelissero:Well, they did it at like 10 a.m. the next day. It was instantaneous. And what the Ravens would say, they've not, again, spoken to some of the mechanics on this. What they'd say is, well, what do you want us to do? We needed to improve our team. We needed a pass rusher. Why wouldn't we go and get Trey Hendrickson? It certainly doesn't do anything to dampen the suspicions of people within the league that they went from trading two first-round picks for Max Crosby to trading Max Crosby for two first-round picks and Trey Hendrickson, which essentially, no matter what you think of the motivation, that's the ultimate outcome of all of this.

29:57Tom Pelissero:So Trey Hendrickson gets his deal. It's a real one, four years, and I believe$112 million. He can earn more with incentives. Max Crosby is a better all-around player than Trey Hendrickson, but in terms of pass rush ability, you know exactly what you're getting in Hendrickson, all of which then leaves us with what becomes now of Max Crosby. He posted something last night on social media saying, I'm a Raider. My understanding is he was back in the building yesterday, the day after this all happened, he's right back in the building working out, rehabbing. He spoke with Clint Kubiak. He spoke with John Spitek.

30:34Tom Pelissero:He spoke with Mark Davis. He told everybody, I'm all in. I'm a Raider. I'm going to be here and I'm going to keep doing everything that I've been doing to be the best player for this organization. Like anything else though with Max Crosby, Rich, I would just say you can never rule out that there's another twist in the saga. Just like when we were sitting there at the combine and John Spitek had said, we expect Max Crosby on the team. And I came on the show and said, don't be surprised if he's traded within the next seven to 10 days. I did not add. And then don't be surprised if that trade falls apart four days after that.

31:07Tom Pelissero:But I would just say there are still teams. I can tell you this for all the talk about all the prices plummeted. There are still teams that would trade for Max Crosby. Now there potential will be even more teams that will trade for Max Crosby around the draft or in June when he's getting closer to clearance. and that knee is closer to being healed. We will know Max Crosby is a Raider again when we see Max Crosby wearing a Raiders uniform in week one. I don't think at this point, I would not categorize it as likely, but for the Raiders, they had formulated this plan in terms of what they did in free agency, how they deployed their resources, how they were building that team, under the belief, because they had agreed to it, that Max Crosby was onto the Ravens and they had two first-round picks to fill some of the other holes on the roster.

31:51Tom Pelissero:Do they pivot and just go, all right, Max is back? You know, I know, listen, there's close relationships there, especially between Max Crosby and Mark Davis. You know, Max, his frustration was part of the reason the Raiders were even willing to do this type of a trade. But Max never wanted to leave the Raiders from a core perspective, right? There's philosophy and there's reality. The philosophy, he wanted to be a Raider. He identifies, he's the face of the franchise. But realistically, he just was sick of all the changes. now you know is this a sign i know that he's you know he was six years sober yesterday and congrats to max on that you know i know that he's he's spiritual he believes in things is this the sign that he feels like i just i have to be with the raiders you know that might be it but the phone's going to keep ringing they're going to continue to be offers there are other teams again that would pass max crosby on a physical right now because it allows you to get the player um so we'll see exactly what direction this goes but right now max is back he's on the raiders roster he's in the building and amazingly after weeks of talking about this and seemingly having a resolution on friday night we are back to at least some level of uncertainty about what the future

32:58Rich Eisen:holds for max crosby tom pellissera here on the rich eisen show um i i'm wondering out of the rest of free agency if this didn't happen if max just showed up in baltimore what we'd be talking about today um the quarterbacks are one thing and i'll get to kyla murray with you before i say goodbye but mike evans winding up in san francisco how did that happen why did that happen

33:22Tom Pelissero:tom it was as much about what mike evans wanted to do as anything else if you look at the contract it's three years up to 61 million i believe but like the base value of it is i think 14 a year and it's like 16 something this year. So this wasn't chasing one last bag. This wasn't him going and just taking the money. I believe the Bucs would have offered him more than that to stay in Tampa. So for one reason or another, Mike Evans just decided, I want to go do something different at the end of my probable Hall of Fame career.

33:56Rich Eisen:So then what's the one reason or the other? That's the thing here, you know, and that's the question a lot of people in Tampa are wondering. just to do something different or something going on in Tampa that made him want to do something different? Tom?

34:15Tom Pelissero:Does not sound, from my understanding, like there's a smoking gun or that something happened. Listen, there's been a lot of turnover, kind of like Max Crosby getting sick of all the changes. Mike Evans has a different offensive coordinator every year. Every year they're doing something different with that. He got hurt twice last year. A lot of times when guys get hurt, They think about a lot of different things. He may well believe that the 49ers have a better chance to go win a Super Bowl in 2026 than the Buccaneers do. And if that's what matters to Mike Evans going and trying to chase a second Super Bowl ring, then that may be more important than the money.

34:49Tom Pelissero:He appears to have come to the conclusion again, all things equal. You go from the state of Florida with no state income tax to California, where you're getting taxed through the nose on a contract that is closer to Jalen Naylor than Alec Pierce. This was not about the money with Mike Evans. He clearly wanted to do something different. We'll see how that ends up working out for him in San Francisco. I agree. It was a surprise the way that it played out, where the numbers ended up for Mike Evans. But this was clearly, you know, about football more than it was about anything financial. He's going to now try to help a different team go and win a Super Bowl and the Buccaneers for the first time since Jason Light got there in 2014 to make Mike Evans his first draft pick.

35:33Tom Pelissero:You know, they're going to be working without Mike Evans.

35:36Rich Eisen:All right. Now let's get to Kyler Murray. His free agency tour this year is looking towards next year. I'm trying to, you know, figure out what he's up to before he finally lands in Minnesota, because why wouldn't he? You know, so.

35:52Tom Pelissero:Well, he landed in Minnesota last night physically with his agent, Eric Burkhart. They're there here today. Not in my house, but in the state of Minnesota. Yeah, bring him out, man. Come on. Kyler. What are you planning to live for? So my understanding was Kyler was going to go through a physical this morning. Then he was going to have some meetings. It would be a surprise at this point if he doesn't land with the Vikings. It's his best opportunity to start. The money truly doesn't matter because the Cardinals owe him$36.8 million, fully guaranteed. Kyler then can go and take the minimum from Minnesota.

36:24Tom Pelissero:He'll be in a competition with J.J. McCarthy for the job. It is an experiment of sorts because he's going to be playing in a different offense than he has in his entire career. But Kevin O 'Connell has done tremendous work reviving some quarterbacks. Kirk Cousins was playing his best football before Kirk tore his ACL. Sam Darnold, obviously, parlayed his year in Minnesota into a deal in Seattle and goes and wins the Super Bowl. Can he do the same thing for Kyler Murray? Again, the skill set is very different. Kyler, even at this stage, and he's now going into year eight in the NFL, he still can move unlike a lot of quarterbacks.

36:59Tom Pelissero:He still has a really big arm, but he's never played in that precision, timing-based offense. Drew Petsing does some similar things in Arizona. but this is a little bit different what he's going to be asked to do. So they'll find out if this is a fit and a hit in the Vikings system. Maybe the Vikings find their franchise quarterback for years to come. If it doesn't work out that way, maybe J.J. McCarthy beats him out and Kyler either is a backup or ends up getting cut loose and goes someplace else. What all this tracks toward, though, and you can't overlook it, and I talked about this in advance that I expected this was going to happen, nobody has talked to Kyler around the league, not on any extensive basis, since the pre-draft process in 2019 when the whole world knew he was going number one.

37:40Tom Pelissero:It was old coach Cliff Kingsbury and the Cardinals. So this is an opportunity to interface with some teams that may have quarterback needs in 2027 and be able to just show. I mean, he is by all accounts a different guy than he was, like most people are when they grow up from being 21 years old to 28, 29. You know, just have those conversations. So when teams are thinking about their quarterback plans a year from now, when Kyler is expected to be a free agent again, they have some different interactions for him. It's not him just expecting and assuming success. It's not him looking ahead. To me, it's sensible.

38:14Tom Pelissero:Just have those conversations. He's never been a free agent. He's not allowed to talk to these teams. So last night and this morning, have a few of those conversations. Be able to compare and contrast some things. Kind of get your own mind wrapped around it. But if and when he signs with the Vikings in a deal that there's not a lot to negotiate, so it could come together quickly today, he's in a situation where he's going to be all in and then come after this season if it goes as well as everybody involved hopes Kyler Murray factors as the number one free agent hitting the market next March

38:44Rich Eisen:all right Tom before I let you go on the two minutes I have left here I give you the floor on the deal we're not talking about that we should that leaps out at you from the last few days

38:54Tom Pelissero:um I how about this one okay back to back to the Raiders and the Ravens of all people here Tyler Lindenbaum, three years and$81 million. And it was reported as, I think, a$54 or$60 million guarantee. In effect, the whole thing is guaranteed because the final year, which I believe is$21 million, becomes fully guaranteed this coming March, a year early. In other words, he is going to see the whole three years and$81 million. The reason I bring this one up is because think about the context of this, Rich. In 2018, the number one free agent was Kirk Cousins, and he blew everyone's minds by signing a three-year,$84 million contract with the Vikings that had the same guarantee structure.

39:38Tom Pelissero:It was functionally guaranteed at signing. A mere eight years later, the salary cap has grown to the point that we have a center essentially matching the quarterback contract that absolutely busted the market back in 2018. That is incredible context in my mind of how much this thing has grown. The salary cap going from where it was,$150 million or so at that time, to$300 million now. We've got offensive linemen, centers no less, making what the top quarterbacks were on deals that nobody could believe were happening back eight years ago.

40:15Rich Eisen:Dude, I don't know if you saw, and we're going to do this later on in hour number three in the NFL Network research packet. I don't know if you're reading that stuff because you're too busy reading your texts and everything else. But they came up with a list. And we're going to hit this later on, play sort of like a game show thing of the top contracts of some of the top-name players who have now been in the Hall of Fame for almost a decade or two and how crazy different contracts, how crazy more expensive contracts are.

40:43Tom Pelissero:You're trying to make an entire generation of players sad, is what you're telling me.

40:46Rich Eisen:No, I'm just talking about how the cap keeps going up. It was like, what, like four years ago the cap was at 220? Now it's a three and change. It just keeps going up and up, you know.

40:56Tom Pelissero:It was 100 from 2011 to 2013, which is around the lockout in the new CBA, where they went from a cap credit system to a revenue sharing system. The cap was hovering around$120 million. And even that was a substantial growth from where it had been. It just got stuck because of the way that they calculated it. I know that there was a lot of criticism of the NFLPA and agreeing to take, you know, the percentage they did. It was around 47%. It's now upwards of 48%. but you look at it, it's hard to say business is not booming for everyone involved, particularly Tyler Linderbaum. Thanks for the call, bud.

41:29Tom Pelissero:We'll do it again.

41:30Rich Eisen:Maybe even tomorrow. Screw it. I just keep talking to Tom. There goes Tommy P right there. Perfect example here, and we'll do this later on, but just as an example, in 2021, Trey Hendrickson left the Saints for Cincinnati four years,$60 million. now it's four years almost 120 so almost doubled and he got older and 61 sacks in five seasons later he just got doubled his contract let's take a break 844-204-RICH number to don't, Vinny Pasquantino Joe Linardi after Pellicero here on this Let's Celebrate Team Italy edition The Rich Eisen Show The Podcast

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43:51Rich Eisen:Back here on The Rich Eisen Show, radio and TV, 844-204-RICH being the number to dial here on the program. All right. So that's Tommy P on the latest right there. Okay. On all of that. So, Kellen Moore spoke today. The New Orleans Saints head coach giving more read into their, I think, decision to sign Travis Etienne. We're going to play that a little bit later because is Alvin Kamara thinking of hanging him up? He's going to throw that one out there for you. A lot of people are talking right now. What do you mean? Indro pressers for a lot of people. I saw Kenneth Walker. Oh, Kenneth Walker's talking right now.

44:44Eric DeCosta:Malik Willis is talking right now.

44:46Rich Eisen:Malik Willis. Can't wait to hear what he has to say. What an opportunity for Malik Willis. My goodness gracious. For real.

44:53Eric DeCosta:Yeah.

44:53Rich Eisen:What an opportunity for Malik Willis to be, you know, to be the new quarterback of the Miami Dolphins. So we'll turn that sound around, by the way. did you see who signed across the street over the weekend down here I mean yesterday last night pardon me Chargers yes no they signed Keaton Mitchell oh now let me tell you something okay because that guy has some burst he's got some speed he does and who do you think might be able to use him. Mike McDaniel. I'm telling you.

45:37Rich Eisen:That's one of those fantasy flyers. Put that one away in your memory bank here. Because he didn't get much run. I mean, whenever he got run in Baltimore, it was to spell Derrick Henry, right? When he was healthy, he blew his knee out. But this guy can hit it. Put him in the backfield with Omari and Hampton, right? I know they still have Kimani Vidal, but I saw that signing. I'm like, ah-ha, ah-ha. Give Mike McDaniel the speed burner, the home run hitters. What are the Chargers going to look like offensively at the end of the day? The Chargers. What does that mean? what does that mean they're gonna be the chargers what does that mean be careful you don't like the way people talk about the cowboys in that way and at some point i got to start slapping back we're always going to be punching down at me oh okay is that what that means yeah i mean the chargers are going to charge you no disrespect no disrespect charging the days of charging are over yeah i mean i understand oh wait wait wait wait wait wait wait i understand they've hit their head on a playoff ceiling last two years first two years of gym but the weird stuff the weird chargering stuff that's gone the chargering stuff is gone okay it's gone come on now no i'm i'm just wondering house isn't clean who are they fumbling three times on getting three shots at at a touchdown in tennessee only have you know melvin gordon fumble it on the third time that that sort to stop.

47:14Rich Eisen:That was weird. Who are their receivers? Well, Ladini, McConkey, Quinton Johnson, who I know you had on Fantasy last year. He had a good first half of the season. Trey Harris had a nice... I know I'm going high register here. Nobody's blowing you away. No one's a true number one. Why is Ladini not a true number one for you? I saw him kind of take a step back last year. Mike McDaniel's in town now, pal. You don't think that's a difference? In the passing game? Yeah. No. He's a run game guy. Okay. Tyreek Hill, you know, wants to chat. Well, he ain't on this team. The Ridge Eyes and Show Podcast.

48:00Tom Pelissero:Shot clocks, big shots, upsets, aces, TGL playoffs are here. First, Atlanta Drive starts their repeat run against Los Angeles Golf Club. Then, Rory's Boston Common Golf and Tiger's Jupiter Lynx face off in their playoff debuts. Who will advance? Keep up. It's playoffs. Tune in Tuesday, March 17th at 6.30 p.m. and 9 p.m.

48:17Eric DeCosta:only on ESPN and the ESPN app.