If you take into consideration where each player in the 2019 draft was selected, no one was as big a get as Maxx Crosby. And quite frankly it isn’t even close. Every single one of the top Rookie of the Year prospects were selected in the first and second round. And the other ones on defense were all top ten.

Then there was Crosby.

You have Nick Bosa at number two overall, Josh Allen at number seven overall, Devin Bush at 10 overall….. and Maxx Crosby at 106 overall.

How does that happen? How to 105 picks happen — including four by the Raiders mind you — before one of the best rookie defenders of 2019 comes off the board? Mayock eventually explains why, but only after gushing about his rookie pass rusher.

“I friggin’ love Maxx Crosby,” said Mayock. “What we loved about him on tape is what you saw from him this year, which is just a relentless pursuit during every snap. We put the tape on of Eastern Michigan and to be honest, he didn’t have much of an idea what he was doing, he didn’t know how he was doing it, but I saw this long kid who could bend like Gumby. And understand that when you’re his size, the ability to bend is rare. He could bend, he had length, he had effort, he had motor.”

Did you see it? Where he said how Crosby fell in the draft? “He didn’t what he was doing, he didn’t know how he was doing it.” That’s pretty commonly associated with a boom or bust prospect. Though often times there’s at least one team in the first couple rounds who takes a chance on the boom. Day two passed and no team had stepped up. Perhaps it was because Crosby didn’t play at a Power-5 school, so scouts didn’t trust their eyes?

Mayock trusted his eyes. But after picking Trayvon Mullen at 40 overall, the Raiders had 65 picks to go before getting another shot.

Crosby’s motor is the first thing that jumped out at me. Quite literally. He never gives up on a play and when the play is over, he’s like a little kid bouncing around, just bursting to get back into it. He seems to have endless energy. So, instead of a rookie wall, Crosby actually got better as the season went on. Mayock attributes that to his bulking up.

“What was crazy about Maxx last year is he came in and I remember I lectured him about getting with [Assistant Strength and Conditioning coach] Deuce Gruden and working out,” Mayock continued. “From a nutrition perspective and a weight perspective, it’s rare to see a kid in college gain 15 pounds his rookie year. Of good weight. He came in at plus or minus 250 and he was playing 265 late in the season. That’s a huge difference with absolutely no problem with the movement skills. So, he got bigger, he got stronger, and he kept the same movement skills.”

Crosby didn’t even start a game in the first quarter of the season and didn’t record a sack. At the midseason mark, he had 2.0 sacks to his name. And over the final eight games he had 8.0 sacks to finish with 10.0 on the season — second among rookies. He added 12 tackles for loss over the final eight games to lead all rookies with 16 on the season.