Patrick Paul was asked Monday how the Miami Dolphins intend to handle Maxx Crosby in Sunday’s season opener at Allegiant Stadium, and the third-year left tackle answered like a man who has watched the tape of Miami’s last meeting with the Raiders.
Dolphins left tackle Patrick Paul said the key against Raiders edge rusher Maxx Crosby is to get him off his game. And yes, some trash talk could factor into that. While complimenting Crosby as a player, Paul called him “a hothead.”
Last time the Dolphins faced the Raiders in… pic.twitter.com/4nd9qBQsiW
— David Furones (@DavidFurones_) September 8, 2026
“I feel like he’s a hothead, so a lot of those things you could get into his game with that,” Paul said. “But he’s a great player. You just got to stay on it all four quarters really with him.”
Paul is not freelancing. Miami has a documented history of getting under Crosby’s skin, the last meeting between these teams cost him two fines, and the man delivering the message was voted a captain by his teammates a week ago.
This is a strategy the Dolphins have run before, and it worked.
What Paul actually said about Crosby
The “hothead” line came at the end of a longer answer that was mostly technical. Paul opened by calling Crosby a dynamic player, then walked through the assignment the way a line coach would: Win the spot first, land hands early and keep Crosby from settling into the rhythm that makes him dangerous.
“He likes to play with a lot of swagger,” Paul said. “So, just getting him displaced off his game, getting him off his spots, putting your hands on him, being aggressive and just getting him out of his game.”
Paul also identified Crosby’s motor as the engine of the entire Las Vegas defense. Read in full, it is a respectful scouting report with one sharp edge on the end, and the edge is the part that will travel.
None of this is out of character. ESPN’s Marcel Louis-Jacques reported during 2025 training camp that Paul’s teammates, including pass rusher Jaelan Phillips, described him as a relentless talker in practice who had started backing it up.
Miami has been in Crosby’s head before
The last time these teams met, on Nov. 17, 2024, at Hard Rock Stadium, the Dolphins won 34-19 and spent a good portion of the afternoon needling Crosby. Guard Liam Eichenberg drew an unnecessary roughness penalty when Crosby threw a forearm at him, and afterward Eichenberg did not pretend it was an accident.
“He’s a great player, but he’s kind of easy to aggravate,” Eichenberg said.
Eichenberg explained that his aim had been to stay engaged with Crosby after every whistle for as long as possible, and he was candid about the payoff.
“It’s nice when we get an extra 15,” he said.
Mike McDaniel joined in late in the third quarter. Miami rushed to the line with one second left in the period, sent Jonnu Smith in motion and had Tua Tagovailoa bark a hard count that pulled Crosby across the neutral zone.
McDaniel then yelled toward Crosby that Miami had not even called a play, and De’Von Achane finished the drive with a 2-yard touchdown run. The league’s accounting confirmed how the afternoon landed.
Crosby was docked $11,817 for fighting and $11,255 for taunting in that game, $23,072 in total for a contest in which he finished with five tackles and no quarterback hits, just the third time all season he had been held without one.
Paul spent most of his rookie year on the sideline, but the lesson was available to anyone in the building, and his answer Monday suggests he took notes.
Crosby is not arriving in a good mood
Whatever Miami did to Crosby’s composure in 2024 is small next to what the Raiders and Ravens did to it in March. Las Vegas agreed to send Crosby to Baltimore for two first-round picks, then watched the deal die when Crosby failed his physical in Baltimore.
The relationship with his own team had already frayed in December, when the Raiders shut him down for the final two games against his wishes so he could have knee surgery. Crosby’s response was to be back in the Raiders’ building the next morning and to post a message that ended with a declaration.
“Everything Happens For A Reason. Believe Nothing You Hear & Half Of What You See. Im A Raider. I’m Back,” Crosby wrote.
The knee did not slow him much before the shutdown. He posted 10 sacks and a career-high 28 tackles for loss in 2025, reached double-digit sacks for the fourth time in seven seasons and ranks sixth in the NFL with 69.5 sacks since entering the league in 2019.
He is playing on a three-year, $106.5 million extension signed in March 2025, the highest average salary at his position.
So the player Paul just called a hothead is a 29-year-old five-time Pro Bowl selection who spent the spring being told by one franchise that his knee was not worth two first-round picks and by another that it needed him anyway, and whose first regular-season game since is against the team that fined him twice the last time they met.
The matchup Paul is signing up for
Paul, 24, is 6-foot-7 and 325 pounds, was the 55th pick of the 2024 draft, and started all 17 games last season while playing 99 percent of Miami’s offensive snaps. PFR credits him with eight accepted penalties in 2025, six of them false starts, a number worth remembering for a lineman planning to trade hard counts and chirping with Crosby in front of a road crowd.
Baiting works in both directions. His teammates trusted him anyway.
Paul was one of six captains announced last week, alongside Malik Willis, Zach Sieler, De’Von Achane, Aaron Brewer and Jordyn Brooks. Paul called the vote the biggest honor of his career and one of the goals he keeps written on the mirror he sees every morning.
Miami Dolphins 2026 team captains:
QB Malik Willis
DL Zach Sieler
RB De'Von Achane
OL Patrick Paul
OL Aaron Brewer
LB Jordyn Brooks— Marcel Louis-Jacques (@Marcel_LJ) September 7, 2026
Brewer offered the tempered version of Paul’s message.
“You’ve got to respect his game, but also don’t make it bigger than it is,” Brewer said. “He’s still a player in this league, and you’re a player.”
Jeff Hafley landed somewhere in between.
“You can’t just go into a game and say, ‘Hey, everybody take it nice and easy, Maxx.’ No, you better know where he is,” the head coach said Monday.
If Paul’s plan goes wrong, the fallback is thin. The unofficial depth chart Miami released Tuesday lists Chu Godrick as the backup left tackle, one of the names that arrived when the bottom of the roster was rebuilt in a single day after cutdown.
Miami Dolphins depth chart for Week 1 at Raiders
*Chris Bell, Caleb Douglas, Malik Washington starting WRs
*Seydou Traore TE3, Justin Joly TE4
*Chu Godrick backup LT; Caedan Wallace backup RT
*Dante Trader, Zayne. Anderson starting safeties
*Kyle Louis and Michael Taaffe backup S— Joe Schad (@schadjoe) September 8, 2026
What it means for Sunday
Miami goes to Las Vegas as an underdog whose number has only moved the wrong way, starting a quarterback in Willis whose mobility is the one variable Crosby cannot fully solve on the whiteboard. The history is friendlier than the line suggests.
The Dolphins have won nine of the last 11 meetings and lead the all-time series 20-18-1.
The Dolphins have won nine of their past 11 matchups with the Raiders.
Miami leads the all-time series with Las Vegas/Oakland/Los Angeles/Oakland, 20-18-1.
— David Furones (@DavidFurones_) September 8, 2026
The blueprint from 2024 is sitting right there: Stay attached after the whistle, use the hard count, let Crosby’s temper hand Miami 15 yards at a time. If it works, Paul’s quote becomes the first chapter of a captaincy story.
If it does not, and Crosby answers with two sacks and Paul answers with a false start on third down, the same quote becomes the thing Raiders fans replay all week.
Either way, Paul made it personal on purpose, and he did it five days before anyone could tell him whether it was a good idea. Kickoff is Sunday afternoon, Sept. 13, at Allegiant Stadium.
