When is three All-Pros not enough? When a fourth was warranted.
On Friday, the Associated Press put out their All-Pro first and second teams. Among them, the Raiders had three first-teamers. That’s great and all, but it’s hard not to think about the one who was left off both teams.
One Maxx Crosby.
The three who made the first team were RB Josh Jacobs, WR Davante Adams, and K Daniel Carlson.
All were deserving to be certain. But so too was Crosby. If not for the first team, then at least for the second team.
Adams took to Twitter to voice his displeasure that his elite defensive teammate did not join him among the All-Pro honors.
Congrats to my teammates and other boys around the league on their all-pro nods! Maxx was brutally snubbed and somebody needs to be held accountable. As for me…that’s 3 1st team blessings in a row. God is great 🙌🏾
— Davante Adams (@tae15adams) January 13, 2023
“Brutally snubbed” are strong words. But accurate. Though I don’t know how can be held accountable for the snubbing.
How is it that Crosby was snubbed? Almost certainly because the voters haven’t been paying attention and just looked at which players had the most sacks and at nothing else. Because had they looked at anything else, there’s simply no way they’d come away not casting a vote for Crosby.
Maxx Crosby in 2022
Rank
Tackles for Loss 22 1st
QB Hits 35 2nd
Pressures 81 3rd
Sacks 12.5 T-8th@CrosbyMaxx went off this year 😤 pic.twitter.com/U5Lp5hcq6d— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) January 13, 2023
The first team edge rushers were Nick Bosa and Micah Parsons. Second team was Myles Garrett and Haason Reddick.
Bosa led the league with 16.5 sacks while Garrett and Reddick tied for second with 16 apiece. Parsons was seventh with 13.5 sacks. Just ahead of Crosby who had 12.5.
Other than that, the only player among them who even shows up even in Crosby’s orbit was Bosa who was the only player to have more QB hits (48) than Crosby (35) and was second (19) behind Crosby (22) in tackles for loss.
And we haven’t even mentioned his overall tackle numbers. Crosby absolutely destroyed the field in that area.
Crosby’s 88 combined tackles led all defensive ends by a wide margin. There isn’t an edge rusher in the league who came within even 20 tackles of that. And there isn’t a player in the NFL with over five sacks who had more run stops than the 44 Crosby had.
It’s utterly absurd the think there are four players more deserving of being an All-Pro than Crosby.
Brutally snubbed is pretty accurate.
