Maxx Crosby and the Raiders know that they will have to go through Patrick Mahomes and the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs to get where they plan to go under Jon Gruden.
The Raiders didn't have any answers for Mahomes last season. He threw four touchdown passes in the second quarter of a Week 2 win at the Coliseum and the Raiders were pantsed 40-9 in Kansas City in Week 14 at Arrowhead Stadium.
Crosby had a stellar rookie campaign in which he notched 10 sacks and announced himself as a building block for Paul Guenther's defense. As Year 2 approaches, Crosby is locked in on getting to Mahomes, who he was unable to sack in 2019.
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SIGN UP HERE “I was close a few times,” Crosby said on Bleacher Report’s “The Lefkoe Show.” “It pissed me off pretty much. Pretty much every second after that game was over, both times, I was just mad and blah blah blah, whatever.
“He’s a different type of player, too. He’s one of those guys. He just backpedals, he’ll throw the ball from weird angles, it’s not like sacking a regular quarterback. Yeah, I’m definitely looking forward to sacking him. It needs to happen. It’s definitely going to happen.”
The Raiders injected a lot of talent into their defense over the offseason in hopes they can close the gap between themselves and the Chiefs. The additions of linebackers Cory Littleton and Nick Kwiatkoski, as well as safety Damarious Randall, should help the Silver and Black slow Mahomes and The Legion of Zoom down.
Crosby knows pressuring Mahomes is the key to not getting diced up by the Chiefs' high-octane offense and the Eastern Michigan product has a message for his division rival.
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“You can do whatever you want,” Crosby told Lefkoe. “Just know I’m coming, no doubt."
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The Raiders started last season 6-4 before losing five of their last six games to end their final year in Oakland.
Now in Las Vegas, the Raiders are looking to make another leap in Year 3 under Gruden. They added talent to every level of their defense and drafted dynamic play-makers Henry Ruggs and Bryan Edwards to give quarterback Derek Carr a full arsenal of weapons.
Every move the Raiders made has been with catching the Chiefs in mind. The Silver and Black still are looking up at their division rivals, but Crosby and Co. are ready to close to gap.
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