This column is ultimately and eventually going to be about the Baltimore Ravens making the power move of the offseason so far in agreeing Friday night to trade two first-round draft picks to the Las Vegas Raiders for elite in-his-prime edge rusher Maxx Crosby.
Ultimately and eventually — promise — but we’re going to take the scenic route in getting there.
The Super Bowl chase was as wide-open last season as it had been in years, as proven by a 60-to-1 preseason longshot beating an 80-to-1 preseason long-er shot to win it all. It was the first time on record that two teams with preseason title odds worse than 50-to-1 met in the Big Game.
That was due to a variety of reasons.
The seven teams with the best preseason betting odds to go all the way, per BetMGM, were all undone by injuries (the Baltimore Ravens, Kansas City Chiefs, Green Bay Packers and Washington Commanders), frustrating inconsistency (Philadelphia Eagles, Buffalo Bills and Detroit Lions) or both.
Four of those expected top contenders missed the playoffs entirely and none made it out of the divisional round. Incredible.
Zoom the lens out further, and of the 14 teams with the best preseason Super Bowl championship odds last year, half didn’t even make the playoffs while only four got past the wild-card round (the Denver Broncos, Los Angeles Rams, Buffalo Bills and San Francisco 49ers).
The NFL has always touted parity among its paramount appeals, but 2025 took that concept to another level.
Both because of so many expected contenders faltering and with maybe the best cycle of new coach hires in recent memory immediately transforming franchises — except, of course, the New York Jets and Raiders, to no one’s surprise — the entire season mostly played out in contrast to any realistic predictive model.
The Seattle Seahawks winning the Super Bowl over the New England Patriots? The Jacksonville Jaguars and Chicago Bears among the best teams in the NFL? Heck, even the Carolina Panthers making the playoffs over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Atlanta Falcons … almost all of it was haywire.
That’s all a roundabout way to get us back to the promised point.
The 2026 Super Bowl picture also is without an overwhelming favorite, but for a totally different reason.
This time around, there are simply so many clear top-end contenders — especially in the AFC.
Baltimore Now Betting Favorite To Win Stacked AFC
The Ravens surged near the top of that list Friday in winning the Maxx Crosby Sweepstakes and beating out the Dallas Cowboys, who per ESPN’s Adam Schefter refused to move beyond offering a first and second-round pick.
The deal can’t become official until the start of the NFL’s new league year on Wednesday, but Baltimore is sending the No. 14 pick in the upcoming draft and a 2027 first-round pick to the Raiders for the five-time Pro Bowl defensive end.
Let’s reel off the list of AFC teams that would not surprise any rational football fan if they won the Super Bowl next season — starting with Crosby’s new team.
Baltimore Ravens: Two-time NFL MVP Lamar Jackson looking to silence doubters after an injury-plagued 2025 season, elite RB Derrick Henry still in his seemingly endless late prime, a highly regarded new head coach in Jesse Minter who should elevate a defense that took a big step back last year but now has one of the best pass rushers in the NFL to set the tone up front, and in general, an organization clearly going all-in on this season to prove it made the right move in canning well-respected longtime head coach John Harbaugh after 18 seasons. The Ravens are indeed the new betting favorite to win the AFC and presently have the third-best odds to win the Super Bowl (+1000) behind the NFC’s Seahawks and Rams (+800 each).
Buffalo Bills: Josh Allen, arguably the best QB in the NFL and at the peak of his powers, with a new No. 1 WR in freshly acquired DJ Moore, the reigning NFL rushing leader in James Cook and a new head coach in Joe Brady to give the team a jolt after too many underachieving finishes.
Denver Broncos: They very likely would have won the AFC last year if not for QB Bo Nix’s season-ending broken ankle in the divisional round. Denver is a team on the ascent with an excellent defense and Super Bowl-winning head coach and should only be even better in the years to come.
New England Patriots: They did just reach the Super Bowl in coach Mike Vrabel’s first year at the helm and QB Drake Maye’s second NFL season. They aren’t going away.
Kansas City Chiefs: Do you really want to count out Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid after one outlier season and Mahomes’ knee injury? The Chiefs had played in five of the previous six Super Bowls, winning three, and are now picking in the top 10 of the NFL draft for the first time since taking Mahomes in 2017. They can absolutely be right back in Super Bowl contention in 2026.
Then there is the tier of AFC teams that would be somewhat of surprise if they won the Super Bowl but also can’t totally be counted out …
Los Angeles Chargers: Imagine if they muster any semblance of an offensive line to protect QB Justin Herbert next year … the Chargers could be one of the most balanced teams in the league with an above-average offense and defense all led by an elite head coach in Jim Harbaugh.
Houston Texans: The Texans return the core of their NFL-best defense and were one of the hottest teams in the league until QB C.J. Stroud totally imploded in the playoffs. There’s no reason they shouldn’t be right back in the same spot again in 2026 barring major injury setbacks. Whether Stroud can do his part to get Houston over the hump will remain the biggest X-factor.
Jacksonville Jaguars: Why not? Coach Liam Coen turned the Jags from 4-13 to 13-4 in his first season, brought out the best version of QB Trevor Lawrence that the former No. 1 overall pick has shown in his entire career, nearly, nearly beat the Bills in the wild-card round and retained coveted defensive coordinator Anthony Campanile. If it’s possible for a 13-4 team to get better — and that has to be on the table — then of course they belong on this list.
Cincinnati Bengals: OK, now we’re stretching, but are we? If star QB Joe Burrow manages to stay healthy, the Bengals could absolutely be one of the top offenses in football next year. Can Cincinnati fix its abysmal defense even a little? If so, Burrow has gotten the Bengals to the Big Game once already in his career — they can’t be counted out.
(We’re going to cut the list there, but the next team would have been the Indianapolis Colts, who did start 8-2 last year before QB Daniel Jones started to fall apart physically. But with Jones recovering from a torn Achilles — and still not officially signed with the Colts putting the transition tag on him, allowing other teams to still make offers — and with emerging star WR Alec Pierce hitting free agency, we’ll leave them off for now.)
So that’s five AFC teams that have to be considered legitimate Super Bowl contenders and a few others that aren’t unrealistic additions to the list pending how free agency, the draft and general team health plays out from here.
Indeed, the Super Bowl chase — especially on the AFC side — looks completely wide-open for the second year in a row, but this time for the abundance of true top contenders rather than an unusually high rate of unpredictable underachievers and unlikely underdogs.
That’s the ultimate takeaway from the Ravens’ trade for Crosby.
The pressure now rachets up even further for the rest of the teams on that list to continue elevating their rosters for what should be an absolute slugfest to get to the Super Bowl.
Why Maxx Crosby Is A True Game-Changer For Baltimore
Finally, though, let’s zoom the focus back in on the Ravens and what they did Friday.
If giving up two first-round picks seems like a hefty price to pay, well, it is (see the list below for perspective) — but it’s also absolutely justified in this case.
As Schefter noted, Crosby has the most pressures in the NFL since coming into the league in 2019. He has 69.5 sacks (including four double-digit sack seasons and a high of 14.5 in 2023), 439 tackles, 164 QB hits, 11 forced fumbles and 29 pass deflections, earning two second-team All-Pro nods and twice finishing top four in the voting for NFL Defensive Player of the Year.
He’ll be just 29 this season, still plum in the prime of his career, playing for one of the better defensive-minded coaches in the league and on a true contender for the first time. He could well be in for a career year.
To truly underscore why this move is so impactful for the Ravens, though, it can be summed up much more succinctly — they got the very best edge rusher available to address the most glaring need on their entire roster.
A lot went off-script and wrong for Baltimore last year, but seeing its defense dip to 24th in the league (354.5 yards per game allowed) after three straight seasons finishing in the top 10 was every bit as frustrating as its star QB’s mounting injuries and unavailability.
Within that defensive drop-off, the Ravens ranked tied for 28th in the NFL in sacks (30), ahead of only the Panthers, rudderless Jets and injury-decimated 49ers. DT Travis Jones led the team with 5 sacks, while OLB Tavius Robinson (4.5) and rookie OLB Mike Green (3.5) were the unit’s biggest threats off the edge.
The same way a healthy Lamar Jackson transforms the Ravens’ offense, the addition of Crosby quite simply changes the entire dynamics of Baltimore’s defense in 2026.
Right along with the AFC and Super Bowl pictures.
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