If you're a defensive lineman in the NFL, a young one especially, there are a few guys around the league that you are watching and paying attention to. Maxx Crosby, the Las Vegas Raiders defensive end, should be the guy for every young DL.
There isn't anyone else at his position who is as elite at both rushing the passer and playing the run. No, literally, look at the tackles for loss stats that he has had over the years and the sacks, and all of that is also with double teams and other things being schemed up to stop him. He's a monster, but his best attribute is easily his motor.
No one, and I mean no one, will outwork Maxx Crosby. So, if you're a young defender on the Raiders, specifically a young defensive lineman, why not just watch him and use that to your advantage? Tyree Wilson is.
"Man, me and Maxx [Crosby], I feel like the bond starts in practice," Wilson told reporters at mandatory minicamp. "If we're doing a look, I always go with Maxx. I try to give him the best look. He tries to give me the best look. What they say, iron sharpens iron. He's always going to critique me, he's been in the game along. He has been successful. So I always ask him, hey, he's like, oh, you can do this better. So I'll go back and do the rep, then he'll tell me good job. And just every day, trying to build and try to idolize what we have established at the Raiders."
Wilson is going into his third year, which means he has now had three offseasons of watching Maxx Crosby work. And, from everything we have seen and heard, Wilson works his tail off, too. Some of that probably rubbed off on him.
Now, for him, it's about seeing how Crosby translates that work into production on the field. That's what Wilson needs to do in what is his biggest season yet.
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