Ravens president Sashi Brown: Maxx Crosby fallout unfortunate, but we have to do things the right way
The failed Maxx Crosby trade from earlier this month continued to be a topic of conversation at Ravens president Sashi Brown's press conference from the league meetings in Arizona on Monday. Baltimore agreed to send a package including two first-round picks to the Raiders for Crosby, but called the trade off after Crosby visited the team ahead of the official start to the league year. While a report indicated that concerns about a degenerative issue in Crosby's knee led to the decision, Brown said that they will "treat all of this with the right privacy and respect and dignity that it deserves" when asked about the decision.
Brown also said that he doesn't think it will create a reputational problem for the Ravens when it comes to dealing with other teams. “We’ve got strong and long relationships across the league,” Brown said, via Jeff Zrebiec of TheAthletic. com.
“We have emphasized the importance of doing things the right way. We’ll continue to do that, and we understand that it is a headline story because of its profile and significance. We believe our relationships, to the extent that you need time to repair them, people understand who we are and what we’re about.
Our locker room understands that as well, but when you have high-profile transactions like this and opportunities like this, it’s unfortunate that sometimes these things do happen. No fault of Maxx’s or ours or the Raiders, it’s just [how] it played out. ” In the wake of the deal falling apart, there has been conversation about altering the trade process leading into the new league year because of the impact that a deal falling apart can have on salary cap space involving other moves being agreed to in the negotiating window.
Brown said he thinks "this is how it should be handled," however, and the Ravens have moved on with Trey Hendrickson as their main defensive acquisition of the offseason.