Raiders had no choice but to part ways with Wilkins

HENDERSON, Nev. — Christian Wilkins’ time with the Las Vegas Raiders was brief.

Too brief. Less than five full NFL regular season games.

The defensive tackle, who was signed as a free agent a year ago to a whopping four-year, $110 million deal with $84.75 million of it guaranteed, was released by the team Thursday, just two days after he had been placed on the Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list as his broken left foot had not healed sufficiently for him to participate in training camp.

At the time, head coach Pete Carroll said he wasn’t sure when or if Wilkins would return to the field. He did not mention the possibility of Wilkins being released when he addressed the media Tuesday prior to the opening of camp.

In a statement released Thursday afternoon, the Raiders said: ”We have decided that it is in the best interests of the organization to move on from Christian Wilkins and he has been informed of his release from the team. This franchise has a commitment of excellence on and off the field. With no clear path or plan for future return to play from Christian, this transaction is necessary for the entire organization to move forward and prepare for a new season.”

So ends one of the more disappointing chapters for the Raiders in their time in Las Vegas. Wilkins was believed to be the perfect compliment to defensive end Maxx Crosby and was projected to give the team a 1-2 punch on the D-line that would rival any team in the league.

Instead, he suffered a Jones fracture in his foot in Week 5 against Denver, had surgery and has not played since. In five games he had 17 total tackles (11 solo) and two sacks.

Reports are the Raiders wanted Wilkins to consider a second surgery to address the issue but he balked at it. With a new regime in place in Carroll and general manager John Spytek, the decision was made to move on from the 29-year-old Wilkins.

"It took a long time to make our decision, and we watched our way through the whole thing,” Carroll said Friday. “We're keeping really clear with what we said, I think there was no clear path to his return, and so we just had to move on."

Wilkins has reportedly filed a grievance with the NFL Players Association to retain the remaining $35.2 million on his contract. The Raiders will obviously contest it, claiming Wilkins failed to properly rehabilitate the injury.

It is now up to Carroll and the Raiders to keep the situation with Wilkins from becoming a distraction during training camp, which was in its third day of on-the-field practices Friday. One way is to keep the focus on who is here rather than who isn’t and foster competition for what would’ve been Wilkins’ spot had he been healthy enough to play.

"This place is about competition, it always has been, and it's just wide open,” Carroll said. “I don't need to talk about any names right now. I think in fact, if you watch the rotations, we're giving everybody a chance, mix guys with the ones and the twos all the way throughout just to gather a bunch of information.”

The reality is players get hurt all the time. Players get released for a variety of reasons all the time. That things with Wilkins and the Raiders did not work out is not that unusual. And yes, a broken foot takes time to heal, especially when you’re a 6-foot-4, 310-pound football player.

From the Raiders’ perspective, the timing of this is better now that it’s taking place early in training camp rather than in the middle of the season as was the case last year when Wilkins got hurt. They have already been working with options at Wilkins spot, including Zach Carter, Jonah Laulu, Tonka Hemingway and rookie JJ Pegues. So it’s not like they suddenly have to switch gears and scramble to find someone to play alongside Crosby and Malcolm Koonce. That process has been underway going back to OTAs and minicamp, both of which Wilkins was not a participant.

“I went right back to cut-ups yesterday of the first two days, just watching each individual guy, and we're just putting the information in the vault here, and we'll figure it out in time,” Carroll said. “But we have a good, young, spunky group of guys now. The young guys that came in this past draft are part of that competition too, so it's exciting."

Carroll has said from the outset it’s about moving forward, not backward, and this is another, though key example of that. Wilkins isn’t coming back and Carroll and the Raiders are moving on. It’s the only direction they can go.