Advertisement
When a player gets tagged as “doubtful” leading up to a game, it’s almost a guarantee they won’t play. But if anyone could break that trend, it’s Las Vegas Raiders’ star pass rusher, Maxx Crosby.
After the Raiders’ Week 3 loss to the Carolina Panthers, Crosby revealed he was battling a high-ankle sprain that he picked up in Week 2 against the Baltimore Ravens. Fast forward to Friday, and head coach Antonio Pierce said Crosby wouldn’t play in Week 4 against the Cleveland Browns. But then the official injury report came out, and suddenly there was a sliver of hope—Crosby was listed as “doubtful,” which left the door slightly open for him to potentially play.
While playing with a doubtful tag is incredibly rare, Crosby has done it before. In Week 12 last season, despite being marked as doubtful, Crosby suited up against the Kansas City Chiefs, played 49 snaps, and even managed to record a sack.
To put it in perspective, no player had played after being listed as doubtful since 2020—until Crosby pulled it off last year.
But here’s the catch: that was a completely different scenario. At that point in the season, the Raiders were in the thick of a playoff race, facing a divisional rival. The stakes were high. Week 4 of the current season, while important, doesn’t quite carry the same urgency, and with the team already dealing with injuries on defense, the Raiders may not want to risk making Crosby’s situation worse and losing him for an even longer stretch.
Still, Crosby has a reputation for being one of the toughest players in the league, so it wouldn’t be a total shock if he somehow makes it onto the field. If anyone can pull off playing through a doubtful status, it’s him.