Boom!
It turns out that Lamar Jackson dropped a bomb of a clue on Friday afternoon when he posted a meme on X of Denzel Washington uttering a signature line from “Training Day.”
Hours later, the stunning trade that sends All-Pro edge rusher Maxx Crosby to the Baltimore Ravens was revealed to the entire NFL universe. And it’s no wonder Jackson was seemingly so hyped to celebrate, ASAP.
Suddenly, one of the NFL’s biggest teases – for all the breathtaking splash plays and MVP seasons, collecting a ring has been so elusive for Jackson – is a lot more dangerous.
Adding Crosby to the Ravens mix, which becomes official when the NFL’s new league year opens on Wednesday, is so much bigger than, say, supporting Jackson by landing a big-play receiver or some stud blocker. Sure, the two-time NFL MVP wouldn’t turn down more marquee weapons for his offense (sorry, not enough draft capital left now to deal for A.J. Brown), but with football being a team game and with so many other pieces in place, Crosby, 28, is the game-changer that adds a whole other layer to the Super Bowl expectations that have existed for several years now in the Charm City.
How many leads have the Ravens blown?
Over the past five years, Baltimore has blown an NFL-worst 16 games where it led in the final five minutes of the fourth quarter.
Yeah, finishing games has been a major problem. The gagging has been such a thing – including late-game meltdowns at Buffalo in Week 1 and against New England in Week 16 in 2025 – that it ultimately cost John Harbaugh his job. And while Jackson hardly brought his A-game during a string of playoff meltdowns that included as assortment of blunders by others, too, the blown leads have represented an even more consistent pattern. Like underachieving with an exclamation point.
That’s why Crosby – who played in one playoff game during seven seasons with the Raiders and, well, had two sacks in a Week 2 win in 2024 when Baltimore blew a 10-point fourth-quarter lead – brings so much promise with the cost of the two first-round picks that Ravens GM Eric DeCosta sent to Las Vegas.
He’s a finisher.
It’s one thing that Crosby addresses a need clearly documented on paper. New coach Jessie Minter inherits a unit that had the third-fewest sacks (30) in the NFL last season. With his third double-digit sack season in four years, Crosby had twice as many sacks in 2025 (10) than any Raven. The loss of all-pro defensive tackle Nnamdi Madubuike, who suffered a neck injury in Week 2, was undoubtedly a key factor for Baltimore, but this is deeper than that. Crosby brings the threat off the edge that the team has lacked for a long time.
Of course, having a stud on the front line has to make other defensive playmakers better. That applies to linebacker Roquan Smith and on the back end, with cornerback Marlon Humphrey and safety Kyle Hamilton part of an outfit that in 2025 ranked next-to-last in the NFL against the pass.
Baltimore’s defense, next to last? That seems so odd, given the tradition. Yet it has been apparent that the tradition has been a far cry from reality in recent years. Ray Lewis, Ed Reed, Terrell Suggs – stars of Ravens defenses from yesteryear – have been gone for so long that a generation of fans never saw them play.
But here’s why they were so special: The Ravens defense used to be that unit that rarely (if ever?) blew leads in crunch time. Instead, when given a lead, they closed out games. That’s what championship defenses do. That’s how tradition is formed. The identity was so profound – the Ravens once had such a bad-ass defense that they won the franchise’s first Super Bowl despite going five consecutive games that season without scoring a single offensive touchdown – it was so glaring that it was no longer there.
Maybe Crosby helps to restore at least some of that tradition. He certainly has the look of a player who would have fit in so well with Ray-Ray (Lewis), T-Sizzle (Suggs), Goose (aka Tony Siragusa) and the other Baltimore bullies.
When the Raiders told Crosby of their decision to deactivate him for the final two games last season – which might be extrapolated into a tanking effort to ensure getting the No. 1 pick overall in the upcoming draft, to be used undoubtedly on IU quarterback Fernando Mendoza – he responded by storming out of the team’s headquarters. Never mind that the Raiders were hurtling toward a 3-14 and would soon move on from Pete Carroll. Forget that his financial bottom line was secured with the then-record, three-year, $106.5 million extension signed last offseason. Cast aside the tender knee and other injuries he battled last season.
Pure and simple, Crosby reportedly got mad – he went ‘Madd Maxx,’ so to speak – because he wanted to play.
That reflects the intangible beneath the sack numbers and pressure rates and why it’s evident on top of just watching him play, I’m figuring Crosby has the heart of a throwback Raven. If he can hold up as a player who rarely comes off the field, and as a linchpin with the motor that has produced more fourth-quarter sacks than all but a handful of players since he came into the league, he could represent that proverbial missing link for a championship puzzle.
With dots that connect directly to Jackson, the team’s most important player and undisputed locker room leader. Imagine the lift that comes if the Ravens finally fielded a defense that can be counted on in crunch time.
Jackson can certainly envision it. Like boom.
Contact Bell at jbell@usatoday.com or follow on X: @JarrettBell
