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With Trey Hendrickson departing Cincinnati, one premier pass rusher is potentially out of the AFC North, but another one has just arrived.
The Baltimore Ravens are putting the final touches on a trade to acquire Maxx Crosby from the Las Vegas Raiders. The Ravens will be sending their first-round picks from 2026 and 2027 in exchange for the 28-year-old star who has 69.5 career sacks. It’s a “push all your chips into the pot” move by Baltimore and one that was sorely needed as they were 28th in sacks last season.
It is an ideal beginning for new Ravens head coach Jesse Minter who is already a defensive mastermind. And it also means that the Bengals will now be facing Crosby, Myles Garrett, and TJ Watt a combined six times next season.
But the line protecting Joe Burrow is perhaps the best it’s ever been, and you won’t see them backing down from the challenge anytime soon.
After averaging three sacks a game through the first five weeks last year they improved dramatically in protecting Joe Flacco and eventually Burrow when he returned. Over the final 12 games of 2025, the line averaged less than two sacks per game.
A major part of the optimism about the offensive line is the re-signing of guard Dalton Risner. PFF rated him the No. 19 guard out of 82 in blocking for pass plays.M and 25 out of 82 in run blocking. They are also young at guard (Dylan Fairchild) and tackle (Amarius Mims) meaning that the best is yet to come for this unit moving forward.
And we all remember the Week 9 matchup in 2024 where Crosby came into the game looking to replicate a four sack performance he put in against them in 2019. He came away empty handed though, without recording a single sack. That was due in large part to Mims, a rookie at the time, who had a hefty dose of one-on-one matchups and came out the victor in nearly all of them.
And in Week 18 this year, Cincinnati’s line shut down TJ Watt as well, holding him to zero sacks, tackles, or quarterback pressures. And while Garrett has terrorized the Bengals in the past, it hasn’t stopped them from winning games. It all shows that even with the addition of Crosby to the Ravens, the stalwarts along the line in the Queen City have been ramping up their protections against the best talent in the NFL for a long time.
And while the results haven’t always been pretty, they are trending in the right direction once again.
So bring it on, Maxx Crosby.
