There is no tougher job on the Raiders on a day-to-day basis than being the man who has to line up against Maxx Crosby. This year it’s been Thayer Munford who has been in that unenviable position.
Crosby doesn’t know what half speed is. For him it’s full speed every rep, even before pads go on, which can be frustrating for the man trying to block him being that no contact makes life more difficult for them.
Maxx don’t care. And neither does his head coach. He wants his new tackle to try and match Crosby’s energy.
“Munford can’t have a bad day. Can’t have a bad rep. Because I’m not slowing Maxx Crosby down. Not doing it,” said Antonio Pierce. “I told our staff, I’m not doing it. Munford’s going to see that in real life when we go against these other defensive ends in the National Football League. So, to get those repetitions each and every day, give or take 50 or 60 snaps per practice. Hopefully that speeds up the development and growth to make us a better team.”
While the rest of the offense seems to be given some grace to make their mistakes and ease into the new scheme, Munford is not afforded that grace.
While you don’t expect him to be able to keep Crosby out of the backfield much — due to the lack of pads and contact as well as every down being a passing down — what you want to see is Munford give something back to Crosby.
We saw a little of that on day one when Munford seemed to get a bit miffed at Crosby tearing around the edge every snap and then getting in his face. Munford shoved Crosby off him, which is a good start. If he can manage to go toe-to-toe with Crosby, he can handle just about any edge rusher in the league. Which is just what Pierce is looking for.
“Everything I talk about in every phase — phase one, phase two, phase three, minicamp — competing. Training camp, competing,” said Pierce. “It’s Raiders vs Raiders until we get to Week one of the preseason and Week one of the regular season. Raiders aren’t going to be the best of friends when we get to training camp. It’s not going to be pretty. It’s going to be ugly. I’m sure it’s going to be violent. And then we’ll love one another and we’ll do it again when we go against somebody else.
“Maxx Crosby going against Munford is going to do nothing but make Munford a better player.”
