{"id":539820,"date":"2026-03-23T04:32:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T04:32:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/539820\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T04:32:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T04:32:16","slug":"patriots-tied-to-controversial-former-1st-rd-defensive-tackle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/539820\/","title":{"rendered":"Patriots Tied To Controversial Former 1st-Rd Defensive Tackle"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New England Patriots<\/a> have a 335-pound hole to fill on their defensive line after fan-favorite defensive tackle Khyiris Tonga received a much-deserved payday from the Kansas City Chiefs in free agency.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Boston sports writer Sophia Weller introduced an intriguing fix<\/a> to New England\u2019s problem that involves controversial former-star defensive tackle Christian Wilkins.<\/p>\n

Wilkins was a top-15 pick in the 2019 NFL Draft. He played out his rookie contract with the Miami Dolphins before signing a massive deal with the Las Vegas Raiders in 2024.<\/p>\n

He played just five games under his new four-year, $100 million deal before the Raiders cut ties with him entirely.<\/p>\n

The complications between the two parties extend far past Wilkins\u2019 shoddy recovery from his foot injury that ended his 2024 season. Last year, Wilkins was dismissed from the team after a bizarre locker room interaction with a teammate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The official report of what may have transpired<\/a> in the Raiders locker room is that Wilkins \u201cplayfully kissed\u201d a teammate on his head, and the teammate took offense to it. The Raiders maintain that he was cut for a failure to maintain his physical condition after he mishandled his injury recovery.<\/p>\n

Whatever the case may be, when Wilkins is healthy, he is capable of being a double-digit sack guy in the interior of the defensive line. Pairing him up with Milton Williams would expose the offense to a myriad of problems.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Head coach Mike Vrabel would have to feel very confident that he had the full story before taking a stab at the 30-year-old tackle, but the prospect of bringing Wilkins to Foxboro is certainly enticing.<\/p>\n

More NFL:\u00a0NFL Writer Names Rising AFC Team As Ideal Landing Spot For Stefon Diggs<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New England Patriots have a 335-pound hole to fill on their defensive line after fan-favorite defensive tackle…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":539821,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":["post-539820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=539820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/539821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=539820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=539820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=539820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}