By the letter of the law, the Ravens broke no rules in backing out of their trade with the Raiders for star defensive end Maxx Crosby late Tuesday.
The deal was agreed to last Friday, six days before the start of the new league year. That means the Ravens had until 1 p.m. PT on Wednesday to change their mind or reverse course.
That’s exactly what they did Tuesday, with multiple sources confirming that the Ravens pulled an about-face over misgivings about the physical they put Crosby through before officially signing off on the trade.
Just like that, the trade was off. The two first-round picks the Raiders got in return for Crosby went right back to Baltimore. Crosby, who should have been looking for a new home in Maryland, hopped on a plane headed back to Las Vegas, still a member of the Raiders after mentally turning the page from his beloved Raiders to his new life with the Ravens.
Talk about a shocking turn of events.
But no rules were broken. At least not officially.
Bottom line, the Ravens were well within their rights.
As the saying goes, no deal is done until it’s done. That’s rule No. 1 in any negotiation.
As for how some people within the league now view the Ravens, let’s just say the perspective is very different today than it was 48 hours ago.
It’s true no official rule was broken, but the sense within the NFL is that the Ravens breached an honor element. That feeling intensified Wednesday morning when Baltimore agreed to terms with edge rusher Trey Hendrickson on a four-year deal worth $112 million.
The prevailing thought in league circles is that the Ravens, realizing an equivalent player in Hendrickson was surprisingly available at an acceptable price, hid behind their reservations about the physical to nix the Crosby trade.
They get a great player in Hendrickson, and they hold onto their two first-round picks, including the 14th pick overall in next month’s draft.
For those reasons, the level of rancor directed at the Ravens from their peers felt unprecedented in the hours after they backed out of their agreement.
“Really disappointing,” an NFL source told The California Post on Tuesday night.
“It’s really bad business by Baltimore,” said another.
It’s not the first time the Ravens have pulled out of an agreement, which raises the suspicion about how they conducted themselves in this case.
In 2020, they agreed to a three-year, $30 million deal with Rams defensive tackle Michael Brockers. But they changed course based on his physical.
In 2018, they had a multiyear contract agreement in place with wide receiver Ryan Grant but backed out of it over concerns with his ankle. To this day, people wonder if the Ravens failed Grant after learning that Michael Crabtree was available.
“There’s a history there,” an NFL team executive said. “It’s why people around the league aren’t very happy right now.”
The anger is understandable. First off, even in the incredibly competitive world of the NFL, where ultimately it’s one against 32, there is still a code of honesty among teams and executives.
Especially this time of year, when plans are put together and executed based on verbal agreements. With only so many impact players available during free agency, and every team operating within the same salary cap rules, teams and players operate with the blind faith that your word is your word.
That confidence is essential when money, draft assets and budgets are involved. In the NFL’s complicated financial world, no personnel move is strictly unto itself. Everything is connected to some extent.
Teams that were in the running for Crosby last week — and there were multiple — had to change course when the Raiders turned down their trade offer and accepted Baltimore’s instead. The moves they made from that point forward were in response to not landing Crosby.
The Cowboys pivoted from Crosby to Packers defensive end Rashan Gary, whom they traded for in the days after getting shut out of the Crosby sweepstakes.
The Bears added linebacker Devin Bush and safety Coby Bryant. The Patriots added edge rusher Dre’Mont Jones and wide receiver Romeo Doubs.
Sure, it’s possible that each team makes the same moves even had they traded for Crosby.
More realistically, at least a few of those transactions were made in response to not landing him.
They and everyone else moved on with their lives once the Raiders and Ravens entered into a verbal agreement on the Crosby trade.
Only for the Ravens to pull an about-face by backing out of the deal. Then, they immediately agreed to sign Hendrickson, a move multiple league sources saw coming a mile away late Tuesday.
“On the surface, it really does look like they found a convenient reason to back out of the trade to go get Hendrickson,” a team executive said. “And that’s just a bad deal.”
No, they didn’t break any rules. But in the court of public opinion, and among some of their peers, the Ravens crossed a line Tuesday.