Silver And Black Pride
From Christian Wilkins’ health, to the offensive line, Las Vegas has plenty of work to do heading into preseason
First the rookies. And then the veterans.
That’s how the Las Vegas Raiders embark on all-important training camp. Slated at the team’s headquarters at the Intermountain Health Performance Center in Henderson, Nevada, the Silver & Black’s rookies arrived first this past Thursday with veterans slated to join this coming Tuesday.
From now until the team’s final preseason game on August 23 against the Arizona Cardinals, it’s all about determining who makes the team during the staggering cut down from 90 players to the 53-man regular season roster on August 26.
Thus, let’s take a look at the lingering questions the Raiders face heading into the first training camp between head coach Pete Carroll and general manager John Spytek:
The prized free agent signing last offseason, Wilkins’ recovering from a Jones fracture in his left foot remains a mystery. The reports vary with some noting Wilkins should be back by Week 1 to others being more unclear.
But the Raiders officially put their well-paid defender on the Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list this past Friday. As The Athletic’s Tashan Reed noted, the defensive tackle was out of a walking boot but was seen sporting one once again.
The Raiders inked Wilkins to a five-year, $110 million contract with $82.75 guaranteed and the 30-year-old defender holds an $18.137 million cap number in 2025. That jumps to $37.675 million in 2026 (at age 31) and $33.675 in 2027 (age 32).
Las Vegas did draft a pair of defensive tackles in the 2025 NFL Draft: Tonka Hemingway (135th overall, South Carolina) and JJ Pegues (180th overall, Ole Miss). But Wilkins is supposed to be the high-motor, high-effort tag team partner on the inside for defensive end Maxx Crosby.
The only parties that know really what’s going on with the high-priced defensive tackle are Wilkins and the Raiders. And neither are talking about it.
So it’s wait and see.
And a sub-question: What will the Raiders base alignment be on defense?
That’ll go a long way into answering the starters question above. Because Las Vegas rarely had three linebackers on the field during Patrick Graham’s tenure as defensive coordinator. And it’ll be interesting if the arrival of Carroll and linebackers coach John Glenn — who is a longtime Pete guy — have some sway in changing that.
If the Raiders deploy a 4-2-5 nickel alignment as it’s oft-used formation (which led to me and others labeling that particular scheme as the team’s base defense) only two linebackers will see the majority of playing time. Last season this was Robert Spillane (signed a lucrative free agent pact with the New England Patriots) and Divine Deablo (inked with the Atlanta Falcons as a free agent).
The penciled-in favorites to claim the starting roles (if it’s two linebackers) are Elandon Roberts and Germaine Pratt. Both were...
