Ponying up a big contract for a player, particularly from outside your organization, always invites plenty of downside. Last offseason, the Las Vegas Raiders did just that with the addition of defensive tackle Christian Wilkins, who signed a four-year, $110 million deal with $82 million guaranteed.
Unfortunately, Wilkins wound up playing just five games in his first season as a Raider after breaking his foot. He played well for Las Vegas in 2024, as he recorded Pro Football Focus grades of 74.8 overall and 80.2 against the run.
The Raiders restructured Wilkins' contract this offseason, moving money more into 2026 and 2027 to clear over $15 million in cap space for this year. Unless they want to take on a sizeable dead money hit, they are essentially married to him through 2026, for better or worse.
Christian Wilkins' contract is becoming an increasing nightmare for the Raiders
Lou Scataglia of NFL Spin Zone recently took a look at the worst contract for each NFL team heading into the 2025 season, and Wilkins was the obvious choice for the Raiders.
"Christian Wilkins played in just five games for the Raiders in the 2025 NFL season due to a foot injury, and he is already set to turn 30 years old during the season. Wilkins was yet another example of former GM Tom Telesco going big-fish hunting in free agency, only to overpay for a player and neglect the overall roster depth," Sacataglia wrote. "Wilkins is a good player, but he's not great and is clearly not worth almost $30 million per year. That's just an insane price tag, but he was one of those free agents that was likely going to get overpaid no matter where he signed, as teams do this every single year."
Scataglia also left out a pretty sizeable concern the Raiders have regarding Wilkins beyond the money he is due. Pre-draft reports suggested that he had suffered a setback in his recovery from his foot injury, and Wilkins did not participate in OTA practices or minicamp this offseason.
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On a recent episode of the Just Win Podcast, orthopedic sports surgeon Deepak Chona offered his thoughts about Wilkins' injury.
"They diagnosed him with a Jones Fracture," Chona said. "It’s basically a break in the toe. But the important thing is the spot where the bone breaks has a little bit of a dicey blood supply. So what they did is most likely put a screw through the bone to basically compress it together and get it to heal. When that heals and when it goes smoothly, it’s often no problem."
Chona also addressed, however, that Wilkins has clearly been dealing with a problem as he was initially out of his walking boot but was quickly placed back in it.
"My concern level is somewhat raised for him, given that he was off of the boot and then he went back on it," Chona said. "Maybe as they advanced him, he was having some sort of symptoms, and as a result, they sort of re-imaged."
Raider Nation is always ready for the worst-case scenario, but Chona was actually quite optimistic. Still, a big contract for an aging player who is coming off a significant lower leg injury can quickly become a huge problem for a team. The Raiders are not quite at their breaking point with Wilkins yet, but his tenure has endured a rough start.
It is still possible that Wilkins could be ready for training camp, as Chona noted that if he needed a "revision surgery" he likely would have had it done already, and being out of a walking boot again is a positive sign.