We are only four games into the 2022 season, but it’s never too early to look ahead to the end-of-year awards. And right now, the Raiders have one player who is in the conversation for a major award.
In a recent article by Bill Barnwell of ESPN, he wrote about the current favorites for all of the biggest awards including Defensive Player of the Year. Not surprisingly, Maxx Crosby was mentioned as a contender after a fantastic start to the season.
“The best thing Jon Gruden did during his time with the Raiders was use a fourth-round pick on Crosby, who might be the most explosive rusher in the league in terms of creating plays in the backfield. Crosby has “only” four sacks this season, but his eight tackles for loss lead the NFL.
He is tied with Washington’s Jonathan Allen with nine stuffs, per NFL Next Gen Stats, which shows how effective Crosby is at creating havoc and negative plays.”
Not only is Crosby creating a bunch of pressures, per usual, but he’s gotten even better as a run defender. He is a complete defensive end that can wreck a game in a variety of ways.
We know the voters care about sack totals, so he will need to continue to rack up those over the next three months. But in terms of overall impact, there aren’t many defenders in the league more important than Maxx Crosby.
