The Raiders weren’t able to swing a trade for Maxx Crosby ahead of the new league year, and every indication is that he is prepared to play out the 2026 season in Las Vegas.

It’s possible Crosby will still be traded, but for now he is back in the Raiders’ building, focused on his rehab.

Crosby expects to be at full strength by the start of training camp, and it sounds like he has been looking to media pundits for a little extra motivation in recent weeks. One of the talking heads that seems to have caught Crosby’s attention is NFL Network’s Kyle Brandt, who shared a short back-and-forth he had with Crosby at the end of last week.

“After a whole week of Maxx Crosby, Ravens and Raiders talk, I get an Instagram DM,” Brandt said on NFL Network’s Good Morning Football on Monday.

The DM, according to Brandt, was just the word “noted” and a clown emoji. He took a screenshot of the message and shared it on the show.

“I’m sitting there, I’m actually on a flight, and I’m sitting there like ‘what is he noting?’ So I just simply responded back, and my response back was just ‘I don’t know what you noted, Maxx.’ It was just very simple. I wish I could tell you that Maxx replied. It does say “seen” so he read it,” Brandt continued.

“I bring this up not to mess with Maxx, because I like Maxx, but because I genuinely want to know what was noted. And ‘noted’ is fine. That means I hear what you’re saying, [but] you can’t be all fast and loose about throwing out those clown emojis though. It’s a little bit demeaning… so what was exactly noted?”

Crosby hasn’t responded to Brandt (at least not publicly), but the NFL Network host did suggest last week that the Ravens might have found something they “hated” in Crosby’s knee, adding that he respects the Ravens as an organization generally known to “handle their business properly.”

Considering the Ravens most likely flew Crosby and his family to Baltimore knowing they were wasting his time, it’s probably safe to assume the Raiders All-Pro pass rusher wasn’t on board with the warm sentiment.

Whether or not that’s why Crosby called Brandt a clown… that remains to be seen.

x: @raidersbeat