Kwity Paye’s Arrival Reimagines the Raiders’ Edge

For years the Raiders’ defense has been defined by one man – Maxx Crosby terrorizing quarterbacks while the rest of the unit struggled to hold up its end of the bargain. Enter Kwity Paye, a former first-rounder with an elite run-stopping pedigree and untapped pass-rush potential.

Las Vegas didn’t invest a three-year deal in him simply to stockpile bodies; they did it because their dramatic shift to a base 3–4 and multiple fronts requires a true edge-setting end. Paye offers that and more.

If the Silver and Black are going to shed last season’s bottom-ten defensive ranking, the 27-year-old must be more than a rotational rusher – he must become the tone-setter that frees Crosby to hunt and turns Rob Leonard’s vision into reality.

Paye’s football story began in Providence, Rhode Island, but it was in Ann Arbor where his profile exploded. At Michigan he blossomed into an all-around defensive end, starting 20 of 38 games and amassing 100 tackles, 23.5 tackles for loss, and 11.5 sacks, while rarely leaving the field.

The Indianapolis Colts made him the 21st overall pick in 2021 expecting a premium rusher, yet the franchise instead leaned on him as a two-gap edge defender. In four seasons he logged 30.5 sacks and 37 tackles for loss across 75 games, including career-best sack totals of 8.5 in 2023 and 8 in 2024.