The Las Vegas Raiders defense is set up to be very good in the upcoming 2024-25 season. More specifically pass rusher Maxx Crosby. Fresh off the best season of his career so far, Maxx Crosby is setting out to improve upon it. The Raiders pass rusher set new personal bests in 2023 with 14.5 sacks, 90 tackles and a league-leading 23 tackles for loss, all while battling injuries for most of the season. In an interview with ESPN’s Paul Gutierrez Crosby goes over the expeience of trying to play 17 games for a third consecutive season, and spending seemingly as much time on the injury report as he did, which caused Crosby to sit back and reevaluate.

Las Vegas Raiders Maxx Crosby On Battling Injuries All Of 2023

“I was damn near limited every single day, the whole season in practice, and things like that, and I had to learn to make an adjustment because I can’t just go out there and run my knee into the ground. I had to be ready for Sunday.”

Crosby also said:

“It made me take a step back so I could take three steps forward, and I feel like that’s what this offseason was all about. My one goal is to be the best in the world, pound for pound, and I talk about it, i’m about it , I live it every single day and whatever street I’ve got to travel to get to where I wnat to go, I’m going to do that. So I’m exhausting every single resource I possibly have to have the best season of my career.”

Strong words from the Raiders defensive end. Every since Crosby suffered a knee injury that would plague him for the remainder of the campign in week 2, yet he went on to play 100% of the team’s defensive snaps in 10 more games, and dipped below 80% only one time, and that was when Vegas got blowout by the Los Angeles Chargers. He remained, throughout everything, the Raiders most consistent player. A consistant player during a season that saw Vegas fire its head coach and start three different quarterbacks before going into November.

The team’s season ended on Jan 7th within three and a half weeks, Maxx Crosby underwent one procedure on his knee and another on his thumb. Here’s what Crosby had to say about it:

“I had to get two major surgeries, and it’s been different, but at the end of the day, there’s not one street to get to where you want to go, there’s multiple, and for me, I trust the people around me, trust my team, everyone involved, to get me back to 100 percent. And then also taking that next step.”

Maxx Crosby Is Locked In And Ready For The Upcoming 2024-25 Season

Crosby’s been seekign the right path not only to stay healthy, but to increase his output in the year ahead. There’s still room to grow and get better after three straight Pro Bowls. Crosby has still never cracked the top three in Defensive Player of the Year voting or received recognition as a first-team All-Pro. Such a jump could be made easier by having a defensive-minded coach in Antonio Pierce, and new star additions like Christian Wilkins to take the pressure off.

As always, injuries will also play a factor, though Crosby is hoping he’s worked through all of them for now, and is locked in a ready to go for 2024 saying:

It’s been a hell of an offseason, So, it’s been a hell of a ride back.”