The Las Vegas Raiders released defensive tackle Christian Wilkins on Thursday, the team announced.
— Las Vegas Raiders (@Raiders) July 24, 2025
As part of the transaction, the Raiders voided the remaining $35.2 million in guaranteed money on his contract, citing a disagreement over how he handled the rehab process from the surgery he had in October to repair a Jones fracture in his left foot.
The typical timeline for recovery from a Jones fracture is three to four months, but Wilkins still wasn’t able to practice when the Raiders began OTAs in May. That was a clear sign something had gone awry in his recovery process. And when the Raiders placed him on the physically unable to perform list last week, it confirmed he still wasn’t ready to go for the start of training camp. He missed the Raiders’ training camp practices Wednesday and Thursday before getting released.
Wilkins filed a grievance with the NFLPA, according to a league source. He’ll attempt to recoup the guaranteed money that the Raiders voided.
Before OTAs began, the Raiders informed Wilkins that he needed a second surgery on his foot, according to a league source. Wilkins disagreed and didn’t get the procedure, a league source said. That sparked a back-and-forth over the last few months that led to the Raiders ultimately deciding to move on from Wilkins.
Under the previous regime of former general manager Tom Telesco and former coach Antonio Pierce, the Raiders signed Wilkins to a massive four-year, $110 million contract with $57.5 million in guaranteed money in March 2024. With defensive ends Maxx Crosby and Malcolm Koonce in tow, the expectation was for them to have one of the best defensive lines in the NFL.
That never materialized. During a practice before the first game of the year, Koonce suffered a season-ending torn ACL. In Week 2, Crosby suffered a high-ankle sprain that would later require season-ending surgery after he re-aggravated it later in the season. And in Week 5, Wilkins suffered the Jones fracture while attempting to make a tackle. While he had surgery that knocked him out for the last 12 games of the season, the anticipation was for him to be ready to go by the time the 2025 season rolled around.
Shortly after the Raiders hired GM John Spytek and coach Pete Carroll earlier this year, they learned his status would be in jeopardy.
If the Raiders’ voiding of Wilkins’ remaining guaranteed money holds, then they’ll just be on the hook for his prorated signing bonus through 2028. Wilkins originally received a $24 million signing bonus, but the Raiders restructured his contract in March of this year to create cap space. They converted a $20.5 million roster bonus into a signing bonus and added a void year to the contract. That amount was prorated over the next four years in addition to his original signing bonus, which comes out to an annual cap hit of $9.925 million through 2028.
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