Preseason matchups are there to get teams ready for the regular season. However, it’s become frequent to not see the stars playing those games. Something they usually participate in are joint practices, like the one that featured these two traditional franchises.
Kyle Shanahan has been one of the best coaches in the league since he signed with the 49ers, but he was one of the teams that passed on Maxx Crosby in 2019. San Francisco drafted Nick Bosa that year, so at least they had their star pass rusher.
The story this time was how they treated Crosby in the pre-draft interview. Now an elite defensive end for the Las Vegas Raiders, he was taken in the fourth round back then. His talent shined to the point that he was extended with a contract nearing $100 million.
Shanahan Details Pre-Draft Story with Crosby
“We were kind of jerks to him in our interview when he came out of college and he’s really one of the coolest dudes I’ve seen or been around and one of the best players in this league. But Maxx was a stud. He didn’t care at all. He did not waver and handled it as well as anyone could. So it’s cool to catch up”, Shanahan told Adah Hill of the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Shanahan then shared some details of the interview: “It was Kris Kocurek’s first interview, and he’d been in other places where they liked to kind of attack the guys a little bit, see if you can rattle them. That’s not our style. John was trying to touch his leg, like ‘Kris, chill out a bit.’ Afterward, he was, ‘What, what did I do? Sorry. My last coach really wanted me to do it that way.’”
Crosby explained the situation after the practice: “I was talking trash to Kyle and he’s laughing at me. I went up to him after the play and he was like ‘yeah, man, I feel like an a–hole about our interview we had in 2019.’ And it’s nothing against them, I feel like every single team that I interviewed with didn’t take me seriously,” the defender said per Levi Damien of the Raiders Wire.
