Over the years, the Las Vegas Raiders have been forced to part ways with talented players for a myriad of reasons, and the most recent casualty is Christian Wilkins.
The Raiders signed Wilkins to a lucrative four-year deal in free agency last offseason, shoring up their defensive line and giving them a legitimate one-two punch with him and Maxx Crosby. However, Wilkins’ lone season in Las Vegas was a disappointment as he only appeared in five games before suffering a season-ending foot injury.
Wilkins and the Raiders reportedly disagreed on how he went about his rehab process, so the latter cut him and moved to void the remaining guaranteed money on his deal. Wilkins filed a grievance through the NFLPA, but there are now rumors that he was released due to an incident involving a teammate.
The idea of Wilkins playfully kissing a teammate on the forehead is quite strange, but people like Cam Newton believe there’s more to the story transcribed by Mike Moraitis of Sports Illustrated:
“Make no mistake about this. This is a perfect example of a team, a coach, an organization being fed up,” Newton said on his 4th and 1 podcast. “If that was his only infraction, I guarantee all the money that I got my name on, if that was his only offense, that’s not why he got released.”
As a former player with plenty of experience, Newton has a good understanding of why players get cut or waived, and it sounds like he almost knows that something else had to happen. Newton isn’t the only one skeptical of the reporting; as others have noted, there is more behind the scenes that has yet to come to light.
Regardless, this is another unfortunate situation for the Raiders, who have trouble keeping big-name talent. While losing Wilkins hurts, the team at least has more clarity on its roster situation and can begin to plan for life without the star defensive tackle.
Las Vegas faces an uphill climb in the 2025 season as the AFC West is tougher than ever, so the team needs its defense to be close to elite to compete. It’s hard to imagine the Silver and Black being able to keep pace, but it’ll be interesting to see how they fare.
Raiders sign Kolton Miller to three-year deal
Losing Christian Wilkins on the defense is unfortunate, but the Raiders had more success on the other side of the football as they signed Kolton Miller to a new three-year deal.
The post Raiders News: Cam Newton Not Buying Reason Behind Christian Wilkins’ Release appeared first on Raiders Newswire.