Stephen A Smith took a shot at Eric DeCosta for how he managed the aftermath of Baltimore’s failed attempt to land Maxx Crosby. The ESPN analyst said the Ravens general manager made a business call but fumbled the explanation.
Smith delivered his take on Wednesday’s episode of ESPN’s “First Take,” one day after Baltimore pulled out of its agreement with Las Vegas.
“He did nothing wrong in terms of his decision as a GM to make the move,” Smith said. “But how you handle it matters, and if there is this suspicion, if not stronger than suspicion leading towards evidence that he wasn’t on the up as to why this change of heart transpired. You literally can sit up there and say, ‘We changed our mind, we reflected on this.’
“‘We don’t want to do this because we want to keep these two first round picks and we had an opportunity to get Trey Hendrickson and this is a business decision.’ Had you done it like that, it might not have been light, but in the same breath, it’s not necessarily considered corrupt and sleazy and shady because that’s not how it was handled.”
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“[Eric DeCosta] did nothing wrong in terms of his decision as a GM to make the move. … But how you handle it matters.” —@stephenasmith on how Ravens GM Eric DeCosta handled the Maxx Crosby trade
Baltimore struck a deal on Saturday to send two first-round selections to the Raiders for the five-time Pro Bowl edge rusher. crosby-makes-final-decision-future-raiders-ravens-fiasco” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer” data-is-sponsored=”false”>The agreement fell apart after Crosby went through his physical with the Ravens on Tuesday.
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Ravens quickly moved on from Maxx Crosby
nBaltimore moved fast after walking away from Maxx Crosby, locking up Trey Hendrickson on a four-year, $112 million deal on Wednesday.
Crosby had surgery in January to fix a torn meniscus. His surgeon, Dr. Neal ElAttrache, said to ESPN on Wednesday that he is progressing ahead of schedule. ElAttrache added the the defensive end remains on track to retur during the offseason program.
The Raiders released a statement on Tuesday saying Baltimore backed out of the agreement reached four days earlier. Las Vegas plans to honor its free agent commitments despite losing the expected cap relief from trading Crosby.