Maxx Crosby doesn’t want to be traded.
He knows you might think differently.
“I can’t even open my phone,” the Raiders’ star defensive end said on his podcast, which aired Tuesday. “Every two seconds, it’s Lions fans, Lions fans, Lions fans, Falcons fans, Bears fans, it’s (a photo of) me in an edit with a different jersey, and it’s like, ‘What the (expletive) has this turned into?'”
It’s turned into the trade deadline — and there’s still almost two weeks to go until the official league-mandated halt Nov. 5. Crosby doesn’t plan on being part of it — “I want to be a Raider,” he said — and his franchise is reluctant to trade him.
A lot can change in the next two weeks. But it seems unlikely that Bears general manager Ryan Poles will go big-name hunting at this year’s deadline the way he did the past two seasons. His roster is stronger — and much healthier — than it was in 2022 or 2023.
It’d be tempting for Poles to go for it. The teams above the Bears in the NFC North consist of the Lions, who lost star edge rusher Aidan Hutchinson for the year with a grisly broken leg; the Vikings, who lost quarterback J.J. McCarthy before the season began; and the rival Packers. The other three teams who’d make the NFC playoffs were the season to end today — the Commanders, Seahawks and Falcons — don’t scare anyone.
Even with all that conspiring to help the Bears, analytics projections say they have only a 39% chance of making the playoffs. They won’t play a single NFC North game until the third Sunday in November, and are staring at the most difficult strength of schedule in the NFL between now and the end of the season.
Beside, a sexy all-in move would betray the patience Poles showed in building his roster up to this point. The Bears’ surest path to finding an edge rusher to put opposite Montez Sweat for the rest of quarterback Caleb Williams’ rookie contract is to draft one in Round 1 next April. In Round 2, the Bears could have their choice of the best guard or center, or both, in the draft. They hold the Panthers’ second-round selection.
The Bears’ biggest roster need is help on both lines — at defensive end and tackle, and perhaps a veteran interior offensive lineman. Their pass rush, which has been a concern since the start of training camp, has been robust against a weak schedule. The Bears rank second in pass rush win rate, an ESPN metric created to measure how often rushers beat their blockers within 2 ½ seconds.
Crosby would make any line better. Were he made available, though, the Lions would be the most motivated to chase the Eastern Michigan alum. Losers of last year’s NFC championship game, the Lions could be one player away from a Super Bowl title. The Bears aren’t, even as Williams continues to improve each week.
The cost — as much as two first-round picks, plus the financial flexibility to pay someone making a $24.5 million base salary this season — would be prohibitive for any team not convinced they were on the cusp of a championship. The Bears, at 4-2, aren’t. They might not be if they win the next two games before the deadline, either.
The Bears lived this movie before, when they traded two first-round picks, and more, to the Raiders for Khalil Mack in 2018. They won exactly zero playoff games with him.
Poles was busy at the previous two deadlines, either subtracting or adding players with a combined six Pro Bowls on their resume. In 2022, Poles traded linebacker Roquan Smith to the Ravens and defensive end Robert Quinn, the Bears’ single-season sacks leader, to the Eagles. Then, just hours before the deadline, Poles traded a second-round pick to the Steelers for receiver Chase Claypool.
Last year, he sent the Commanders — the Bears’ opponent Sunday — a second-round pick in exchange for Sweat.
So long as his team stays healthy, Poles seems more likely to work the edges at the deadline. Finding a plug-and-play starting offensive lineman is difficult this time of year, given how essential practice time is for building a rapport with the other four starters. An interior defensive lineman or a situational pass-rusher is more realistic.
Poles might even sell. The Bears are listening to offers for Nate Davis after the guard lost his starting job and then his game-day jersey. Khalil Herbert continues to pop up in trade rumors — he’s played only 27 snaps at running back in the last year of his contract, stuck behind D’Andre Swift and Roschon Johnson. Herbert has played 40% of the Bears’ special teams snaps, though, and that might be worth more to Poles than a Day 3 draft pick.
One thing’s for sure: Poles wasn’t sweating out the Chiefs’ trade for Titans receiver DeAndre Hopkins, the NFL’s active career receiving yards leader, on Wednesday. Or Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers’ reunion with receiver Davante Adams last week.
Poles’ roster has holes. But for maybe the first time in franchise history, the Bears certainly don’t need a wide receiver.