Tristan Wirfs and Luke Goedeke probably hope Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby switches sides multiple times during Sunday’s game at Raymon James Stadium. Otherwise, one of those two tackles for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers is not going to get a break all afternoon.
See, Crosby simply never comes off the field when the Raiders are on defense. That’s not uncommon for an off-ball linebacker or a safety, but it’s very much a rarity for an edge rusher. Teams generally employ four or five-man rotations at that spot in an effort to keep them all fresh enough to rush hard on every snap they play. That’s not an issue for Crosby; he does that anyway. And Crosby is riding a current streak of playing every single defensive snap in the Raiders last six games. That streak of 387 straight defensive snaps played is the longest by an NFL defensive lineman since NFL Next Gen Stats started tracking that in 2016.
It’s easy to understand the Raiders’ motivation to keep Crosby on the field. Even with all of that work, he never takes a break.
“He doesn’t stop,” said Buccaneers Offensive Coordinator Liam Coen. “He doesn’t stop ever. Our goal this week is, how do we play longer and harder than him? Because he’s going to go every single play through the echo of the whistle. He’s got a ton of respect. I’ve got a ton of respect for him as a player.”
Crosby leads the Raiders in both sacks (7.5) and QB hits (19) and no other player on their defense has more than 3.0 or six, respectively. He averaged 13.5 sacks per season in 2022-23, and while he may not be on pace to quite match that, he is still putting relentless pressure on opposing quarterbacks. Since Crosby entered the league as a fourth-round draft pick in 2019 he has racked up 409 pressures, second-most among all NFL players in that span. He has played 94 games, which means he has averaged more than four pressures per game in his career.
The Buccaneers clearly understand that Crosby is the Raiders defender most likely to wreck their plans, so they are definitely working on ways to try to slow him down this Sunday, especially in critical situations. Coen was with the Rams in 2022 when now-Bucs quarterback Baker Mayfield arrived in Los Angeles on a Tuesday night after being claimed off waivers and then played most of a Thursday night game against the Raiders. Crosby had a sack and three quarterback hits in that game but he wasn’t able to stop Mayfield from leading the game-winning drive at the end of regulation.
“Baker had him in 2022 in the first game he ever played [with the Rams] in that game [and] he led a two-minute drive to go win it,” said Coen. “We’ve got to have a plan for him in both the run and the pass, and also be able to – from a play-calling standpoint – make sure that we’re not letting him influence and affect the game in a negative way.”
Wirfs and Goedeke have each put together fine seasons and have stood strong against a variety of edge challenges this year. Wirfs is playing through foot and knee injuries that cost him one game and have kept him out of practice so far this week, but he’s ready for this next test.
“I don’t know where he gets that motor,” said Wirfs. “You see it all over the tape. He’s flying around – it’s insane. Me and Luke have got a big test; we do every week. We’re going to try to limit how much he touches Baker, regardless of how late [in the play] it is. He always goes out of his way to put his hand up. We’re going to not let him. But great player – super-long, super-twitchy and his motor is better than anyone.”
