For the past four years it was a regular occurrence to see Maxx Crosby play every snap on defense. He was one of those rare edge rushers who rarely left the field. And it didn't seem to affect his performance, either. If anything, he became better as the game went along, probably because his constant presence would wear down the tackle trying to block him.
This season has been a different story. At least so far. He has yet to play every snap in a game.
Part of that could be his offseason recovery from a knee surgery. It kept him out of the entire offseason program and had the team hold him out of the preseason entirely.
In the season opener, Crosby was on the field for 82% of the defensive snaps and head coach Klint Kubiak admitted Maxx was on a snap count.
While 82% may seem like a lot, but -- and for most guys it is --, aside from one injury shortened game, it was the lowest snap percentage Crosby had seen in a game since 2023. His snaps went up a bit in the couple few weeks that followed, but were still below 90%, which was almost never the case over the past four seasons.
Crosby has seemed unbothered by the change. Or at least he can accept it since the team started the season 3-0 and his pressure numbers have still been high, including tying for the league lead in pass rush wins (22).
Last week against the Kansas City Chiefs his snap percentage went over 90% for the first time this season. Whether that's a sign of things to come remains to be seen.
Raiders defensive coordinator Rob Leonard says Crosby's snap count is still on a "Week-to-week" basis, adding that they are "happy with it" that way.
Though Crosby missed just five snaps against KC, it was notable that the huge 76-yard run by Kenneth Walker came on one of those snaps, and right through the position where Maxx would have likely been lining up. Something he could probably have thought wouldn't have happened had he been in the game on that play, but that feeling would be mostly a product of it being the truth for so many years. A feeling Leonard says Crosby is not feeling like he used to.
“I think he feels the whole defense together," Leonard said of Crosby. "I think he feels 11 guys out there playing at the speed of what he plays. And he doesn't have to do it all himself. And he's doing a great job with that.”
Another big game is coming up in New England. While the Raiders are coming off a hard-fought loss against a top team, the Patriots are coming off a huge win over an elite Bills squad. So, the Raiders will need their best players on the field as much as possible. Does that mean Crosby's snaps go up? It's worth watching.
This article originally appeared on Raiders Wire: Raiders DE Maxx Crosby snap count 'week-to-week'
