It was reported last month by Chat Sports’ Raiders Report host Mitchell Renz that Christian Wilkins was in need of another medical procedure on his foot. According to Renz at the time, Wilkins was opting against the advice of team doctors and was trying to rehab his foot without another surgery.
As it turns out, Renz was more than a month ahead of mainstream reports on the Raiders’ $110 million defensive star and the rehab squabble between Wilkins and the team ultimately led to his release on Thursday.
Per NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, Wilkins declined “several” medical opinions on his foot and essentially went with his own rehab approach.
“This has been an ongoing sage for many reasons,” Rapoport reported on Thursday.
“My understanding is the team wanted him to have surgery on his foot. He declined. [He] declined several medical opinions, ultimately decided he wanted to rehab this. It has been a battle to get him on the field. Certainly, there has been discord as it relates to Christian Wilkins and the Raiders.”
Additionally, ESPN’s Adam Schefter is reporting the Raiders are pointing to Wilkins’ rehab approach as means to get out of his contract, calling it “failure to maintain his physical condition to play.”
A separate ESPN report said the Raiders voided the remaining $35.2 million of guaranteed money in Wilkins’ contract on June 4, which means there has been an ongoing struggle between Wilkins and the team – that was essentially covered up for the better part of the last two months.
Some on the Las Vegas beat were under the impression this month that Wilkins underwent a second procedure in recent months, but it sounds like even those closest to the organization may have been in the dark on Wilkins’ rehab situation.
There will be more details to come, but for now, it seems from the outside like the Raiders may have been looking for an opportunity to get out of Wilkins’ contract and on Thursday they went all-in on the opportunity to do so.
x: @raidersbeat
Good riddance, hasn’t played since September of 2024. Doesn’t listen to the Doctors and is rehabbing on his own accord. Good luck Mr Wilkins hope you put some coin in the pink piggy. Your nfl career is done. You are damaged goods, nobody will take a pick on you. Good riddance. Go find another linebacker and cornerback Mr general Spytek, job well done!
This will all get ironed out through the grievance procedures, and I’m curious to see how it all plays out. For the Raiders, facing the situation they were where Wilkins was going to be unavailable, and any conventional means would have had massive cap implications, it’s a bit of an understandable Hail Mary. The truth is, Wilkins was a good, solid player who was unlikely to justify his paycheck even if healthy. Given the health situation, the signing ended up being a disaster.
But man, so much for Hondo Carpenter’s sources, who, if we remember a month or so ago, were telling Hondo there was no concern about Wilkins inside the building. Hondo might want to consider getting some better sources.
Hondo is the worst. He’s either having someone telling him something to get their POV pushed or Hondo is just making stuff up to have a career. My money is on him making stuff up
Dance your half *** somewhere else. Got over paid as it is. Just another rookie that played hard to get a fat second contract only to check out. Loser.
Send him to the Chargers. When healthy, he is dominating force of all pro caliber.
It doesn’t matter though. Pete Carroll will have the Raiders at the top in two years anyway.