The Las Vegas Raiders are a traveling circus. It doesn't matter who the head coach is, who the quarterback is, and whether or not you have the all-time greatest the game has ever seen in the ownership group; the Raiders are going to be a circus. And man, is it wonderful for the LA Chargers.
In an offseason that was promising stability and fundamental change comes the biggest circus act of them all. In a truly unprecedented twist, the Baltimore Ravens pulled out of the Maxx Crosby trade after the star edge rusher failed a physical.
What this means for the Ravens and Raiders remains to be seen. Las Vegas went on a spending spree that even included the top Ravens free agent of the offseason, Tyler Linderbaum. With Crosby back in Vegas, the Raiders don't have the same cap space they thought they had to make all the same signings.
Raiders' Maxx Crosby twist is comedy gold for Chargers fans
It is important to note that NFL free agency hasn't actually started. All of the deals that were reported were part of the legal tampering period; they don't become official until Wednesday. Nobody the Raiders reportedly signed on Monday is guaranteed to stay in Vegas now.
Of course, the Raiders could always quickly pivot and trade Crosby to keep those free agents in Las Vegas. But it would either have to happen quickly, or the Raiders would need cooperation from those free agents to wait out the Crosby situation.
Those free agents aren't beholden to the Raiders and don't have to wait for them to resolve the situation... theoretically. Vegas could miss out on the big spending spree that it thought it was getting this offseason.
Even if the Raiders do trade Crosby, they'll probably get a smaller return. The number of teams that can afford Crosby is much smaller. There are also edge-rusher-needy teams that no longer need edge rushers after the moves they made during legal tampering.
Any way you spin it, this is a bad development for the Raiders, which in turn, is a great development for the LA Chargers. The Raiders are never going to stop Raidering, even if it looks like they turned a corner.