Usually, it takes rookies some time to acclimate to the pro game. The deeper into the draft, the more likely it is that you’re drafting a project. Either because you’re getting someone who didn’t have a lot of college production or had strong production against lesser competition.

For that reason, once you hit day three, you don’t have high early expectations. The first pick of day three for the Raiders at 106 overall was Maxx Crosby out of Eastern Michigan.

Crosby would fall into the category of strong production against lesser competition. He put up 35.5 sacks over the past two seasons playing in the Mid-American Conference. He had to put up monster numbers just to get noticed. He did get noticed and was on the NFL radar, but they were falling over themselves to take in on the first two days of the draft. But four picks into day three, the Raiders pulled the trigger. And they’re glad they did.

Crosby is coming off being named the AFC Defensive Player of the Week after putting up a franchise rookie record 4.0 sacks against the Bengals. But it didn’t merely take Crosby ten weeks to get things going. He was already leading the team with 25 pressures and was tied for the team lead with 7 QB hits.

I asked Crosby after his big game last Sunday if something clicked for him, and he said it was nothing like that. He said it was just his time to have that moment. That outside of some progress on the mental side of things, everything else has been there. His defensive coordinator can attest to that.

“We saw him early at Eastern Michigan,” said Paul Guenther. “ Travis Smith went up to Ypsilanti, saw him and he said ‘hey, he’s a good looking kid.’ You could see it on his college tape, and from the minute he got here on our practice field, it was evident we had a gem. He works his butt off, he’s always going 100 miles an hour, and you can’t ask for anything more than that.”

I can also attest to Crosby’s hustle. He never stops moving. In practice, when he was in one place, he was dancing or something, during drills he was at game speed, and even in running wind sprints, he was always the first one to cross the line. He simply knows one speed. And he clearly enjoys it. That’s rare.

“Some guys, you have to push for it, and some guys you don’t have to push to get that,” Guenther continued. “So, he’s one of those guys that you don’t have to push to get that which is always better.”