NFL Trade Rumors
There are big signings that go bust every year but it’s still shocking how quickly things soured between the Raiders and DT Christian Wilkins just a year after he was a prized signing in 2024. Wilkins got a four-year, $110 million deal with $57.5 million in guarantees. The Raiders will get just five games out of Wilkins after he broke his foot last October and was ultimately cut last month.
It’s a weird situation on a few different levels. Wilkins’ injury was a Jones fracture which can be tricky for players to recover from, especially large linemen who are putting a lot of stress on the foot. Still, the timing of the injury should have left ample recovery time and the Raiders expected to have Wilkins in time for OTAs.
That’s not how things played out. There were trickles of reports during the spring and summer that Wilkins’ recovery was not progressing. After he was released, it was revealed that Wilkins discovered or sustained another foot injury in the process of rehabbing his first one, an injury the Raiders believed needed corrective surgery.
Wilkins did not get the surgery, and that combined with his elongated recovery seems to have been at the root of his exit from Las Vegas. It also likely didn’t help that the coach and GM who signed off on such a big deal last offseason were also jettisoned at the start of the offseason, with key new voices taking over like HC Pete Carroll, GM John Spytek and minority owner Tom Brady. Rebuilding the team’s culture has been a big priority and evidently they decided Wilkins didn’t fit into that.
There’s also some weird, tabloid-style stuff floating around an “incident” with Wilkins and a teammate. The official story, as much as has been made “official,” is that Wilkins was messing around and kissed a teammate on the head. The teammate did not take it as a joke and filed an official complaint with human resources.
You wouldn’t be wrong in thinking that action/reaction doesn’t add up and there’s some context being left out. Pro Football Talk noted there’s a different version of the incident making the rounds in the NFL rumor mill, but didn’t report what it was. It’s also not clear how much all this played into the Raiders’ decision.
Regardless, it’s not the first time Wilkins has been caught up in weird stuff with other players. Combined with the injury questions and his age (he turns 30 in December) and there’s a ton of baggage for potentially interested teams to sort through, far more than the last time he was free to sign with another team. Fit and familiarity are always key components for teams when it comes to player acquisition, but they’re even more important in situations like this with a controversial player who isn’t just going to take a pat on the back and a cup of coffee, not when the Raiders are trying to void $35 million in guarantees.
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