You’re right in that this off season the team committed to a true aggressive “win now” cap strategy. Trading for Crosby and continuing that new cap approach would signal that Jerry actually is “all in” not just from a PR standpoint but also from a cap strategy standpoint.
Crosby is locked in for 2026 and 2027. After 2027 he can be cut with no dead money.
The raiders had so much cap room that they needed to spend, they front loaded his contract which is why this year looks so big.
If a team needed the room, they could restructure this year, which is his largest cap hit, and push money into 2028, which would effectively lock him in for that season as well
Convert $30m of his money this year into a “bonus”, and shove that money forward, taking his impact this year down to the vet minimum.
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