Maxx Crosby and Christian Wilkins Named THE BEST DEFENSIVE DUO *In The NFL*

I'm going to need somebody in the comments to talk me down because I'm starting to really believe in this thing to the point where I think we're going to win a lot of games this year. It's the offseason. It's Mount Rushmore season. It's best players in the league season. It's the stuff that we all know and love and hate to talk about because it means that the season is not here yet and we are in this weird limbo after minicamp, pre-training camp where people are discussing who's the best blank in the league and now we've got Bleacher Report coming out with one of those weird videos with like just guys in like homes like me. Like why am I not on Bleacher Report? I digress. Talking about the best defensive duos in the league and I know you've all seen it. Max Crosby and Christian Wilkins were rated the number one defensive duo in the National Football League and we're going to talk about skill level and compare them to other people and blah, blah, blah, but first two things I need from you. Thing one, if you're new and you're considering it, subscribe. We're trying to get to 10,000 before the new league year. We've got about 77 days to do it. Something like that. 77? I don't know if that's right. Whatever. Before week one, Chargers Raiders, consider subscribing. Hit that sub button. Second thing, the Patreon is back up and running for just $5. You can get videos early, your name at the end of the credits, exclusive content and so much more. There's a $5 tier and a $25 tier. I've seen people say they would like to donate or whatever. I don't want you to donate. If you're going to give me your money, I want you to get something in return. Link in the description below or go to Patreon.com slash Oliver Raiders. Also, the Discord is free for everybody. That link is in the description. Hop into Discord. We're talking all the time. Here's the reason why I'm thinking we're going to win a lot of games and it has a lot to do with Patrick Graham and Antonio Pearce and we'll talk about Max Crosby and Christian Wilkins right now. Look, are they the most talented players in their positions? I don't think they are, but what cannot be denied from them, what cannot be taken away from them and their stats to back this up is their effort. Christian Wilkins and Max Crosby last season played the most snaps in their respective positions in the National Football League. Max Crosby was the only edge rusher to play the amount of snaps he played last season. Max Crosby was the number one rated run-stopping edge rusher in the league. How do you stop the run but absolute maximum effort? Christian Wilkins last season, 65 tackles, 100 million QB hits. This guy is insane and now you pair him with Max. Look, it's not rocket science. We've been talking about it to death. These two together are going to be something special. You add Koontz, you add Tyree Wilson. The sky is truly the limit on defense and I've been telling you, we're trying to go the way of the Pittsburgh Steelers in terms of dominant defense, average quarterback play, playoffs every single season. We might get lucky and have one of these quarterbacks, not Gardner probably, Aiden develop into something better than a Kenny Pickett. God, I hope so. And that's how you get lucky and you turn into a perennial Super Bowl contender. But if we're sticking with the defense, there seems to be a theme here. I don't think we have a single player on defense that's the best player in his position skill-wise. But we have guys in positions. Jack Jones, Marcus Epps. Look what happened to the Eagles defense after Marcus Epps left. Max Crosby, Christian Wilkins, Spillane. You add throwing rookies like Eichenberg and Malcolm Koontz. These guys are high motor individuals. They will pin their ears back and they will not stop until the quarterback is down, until the ball is on the ground in our hands. This is the identity of the defense. It's not just smash-mouth physical football. It's effort. Schematics and talent doesn't always travel, but you know it always travels and is always there no matter what kind of day you're having. Effort. And it seems like Antonio Pierce is trying to build the teams that won Super Bowls against the New England Patriots. And I bet you Tom Brady and him discussed how the Giants were able to beat the undefeated Goliath Patriots in 07 and 08. And it was Tom Brady running for his life from Justin Tuck and AP and Strahan and all those guys. The Raiders were the first wildcard team ever to win a Super Bowl. The Giants got into the playoffs at, what were they, 8-8 or 9-7, made this crazy run thanks to their defense and thanks to some clutch plays by Eli Manning to win a Super Bowl against an undefeated juggernaut offensive team in the Patriots. And we showed, when we played the Chiefs last year, the second time, if the defense can play at an elite level, it doesn't matter how bad our offense is. And I talk a lot about the completions that Aiden threw in the first quarter and he didn't throw a single completion the rest of the game. People aren't understanding how much of a positive that is. Everyone wants to tear down the Raiders offense and tear down Aiden because we didn't complete a pass in the second half of the game or whatever it was. We still won the game! Can you imagine if I traveled back in time to Christmas Eve and I said, we're not going to complete a pass after the first quarter and we're still going to win the football game. You would say, how the hell is that possible? And I would say it's because our defense kicked some tail and it is all about the effort. And guys like Crosby and Wilkins and Jack Jones show that. And now you've got Rob Ryan coming in here on press conferences and saying people like Max Crosby are Hall of Fame type players, the best player he's ever coached in the last however many years. I'm going to bring up this quote right now actually. Raiders assistant coach Rob Ryan, Max Crosby, this is a quote, Max Crosby is the best defensive player I've coached in the NFL in 30 years I've coached. That's what he said. And he's coached guys like Willie McGinnis, Ted Bruschi, I mean insane players, Demarcus Ware. This guy has been around the block. Don't you love Rob Ryan? I love that guy. I mean he's bored. You don't talk about being bored to be a Raider. He's talking about Max Crosby being one of the greatest to ever do it. And I've seen for some reason, I guess because people are bored, people are saying who is better, Khalil Mack or Max Crosby? Here's my two cents on this. I think Khalil Mack was better talent wise. I think Max Crosby has a better motor. My overall opinion is, why are we talking about people who aren't on the Raiders? Why are we talking about Josh Jacobs? Why are we talking about Khalil Mack? These guys don't wear the silver and black. Why are we talking about Derek? Forget about these guys. I know it's boring, but wouldn't you rather have me come on here and talk about how great Max Crosby and Christian Wilkins are going to be rather than, you know, in an ideal world where you can go back in time and you could see which player was better, LeBron James or Mack? Who cares? Who's better? And also, I would just like to formally thank Mike Mayock for drafting Max Crosby. I feel like we don't talk about that enough. And you know, he made some bad picks, no doubt about it, but the best pick he ever made was Max Crosby. And Mike, if you're watching, I'd like to formally thank you for that. Look, I think AP has made his identity pretty clear. This is going to be a defensive first football team. We are not looking for the offense to change lives here. We've said this a bunch, right? We just got to manage the game. Put the ball in the hands of the defense. Put the game in the hands of the defense, right? And there are going to be games we play this year that are going to look ugly, but ugly is kind of our thing right now. We're going to muddy up the waters. It's going to be a field goal game, a safety game, a strip sack game. Remember the games we won in 2016, we were scoring a lot, but a lot of the games came down to Khalil Mack making some crazy play, strip sack Cam Newton, pick six, I'm burping again, game over, right? That defense was terrible, the 2016 defense. They were the lowest rated scoring defense in the National Football League. Go back and look at the stats. This season, since AP took over and Rob Ryan said this is no coincidence, we had the number one scoring defense in the National Football League. And I think the reason why we're so hyped for this season and why a lot of people that aren't Raider fans don't understand just why we are so hyped is because if you're a Raider fan of the last 15 years, you don't remember having a good defense because you never had one. We want to see what it's like when the defense takes the reins for a full 17-game season because when AP took over, we went 5-4. With a full season, that sounds a lot like 10-7, which would get you in the playoffs. And then, you don't want to play the best defense in the league with an offense that's got a bunch more weapons than a team like the Pittsburgh Steelers because the Pittsburgh Steelers, who find a way to make the playoffs every season with a great defense, have zero offensive weapons. Their offense is just terrible. No running game, no line, no receivers, no tight ends, nothing. Interim offensive coordinator, and they still made the playoffs, which shows you how good of a coach Mike Tomlin is, and I do think we found our next guy. The difference between us and other teams is that, save for the quarterback, it's a big question mark. I hear ya. But the Steelers have big questions at quarterback, right? And they still find a way to get in there and sneaky win some games. So if we can just get a Steelers-type quarterback with offensive weapons around him and this defense carrying us, making plays, getting stops, flipping the field, that's another thing you have to understand. It's going to be a lot easier for Aiden or Gardner to score from the 50-yard line than it is to score from the 15-yard line because we're going to have a lot of quick changes, force fumbles, interceptions, blocked punts, three and outs, four and outs, that are going to flip the field in our direction. And then you've got people like A.J. Cole, the best punter in the league, flipping fields in the other direction, and now all of a sudden they're at their own 10-yard line and we're ears back, safety, pick six, fumble six. That's why the defense is going to be so good and that's why the defense is going to protect the offense. We're going to have shorter fields for Aiden to work with and it's just going to take one play from Devontae or one play from Brock Bowers to be in the red zone. I'm starting to drink the Kool-Aid here and we haven't even gotten to training camp. It might all come crashing down into the preseason when we look absolutely terrible, but for right now I'm starting to drink it and it tastes real good. It really does. Anyway guys, thank you so much for watching this video. Like I said, go to the Patreon. I got rid of the $10 tier. It's just everything in the $5 that you would ever want. All that good stuff. And then there's a bigger tier, $25, if you want to do that, but I understand that's a lot of money, but it's just $5 for the lonely little $5 tier. It's nothing. Link in the description below, patreon.com slash allupboardraiders. If you don't want to, that's okay. You're doing just enough by watching, hitting that like button. It does help, commenting away, and please be sure to subscribe. It is free after all. No charge to you. I love you guys and I'll see you next time.